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THE 




A NARRATIVE FOR THE YOUNG. 


♦ 

♦ 


ON OCCASION OP THE 


'IttWIfi fff i\t §ritts| unit J'curMgii: §iWj 


BY 

L. N. R. n \ 


WITH AN INTRODUCTORY PREFACE, 


BY THE KEY. T. PHILLIPS, 

JUBILEE SECRETAEY. 


SECOJVJ) AMERICAN EDITION. 



PARRY & MCMILLAN, 

STJCCESSORS TO A'. HART, late CARET & HART. 

1855 . 







• V 



V 


Pnnteti by T K. &: P Q. Collixu- 



/ 




This volume needs no explanatory introduction; its 
object is fully expressed in its title-page; and the reader 
will find in the perusal that if is what it professes to be. 

The ‘‘ Story” of the Book, in all ages, countries, and 
languages, is told with simplicity and truthfulness. The 
work contains the ‘‘ Story” of the Bible from the first 
dawn of revelation to the completion of the sacred 
canon, wdth the interesting details of its translation and 
circulation, from the earliest efforts until the present 
time. To tell the Story of the Book in former days, a 
multitude of curious facts have been culled from works 
of difficult access; and its later progress is illustrated 
by an abundant variety of statements drawn from nu¬ 
merous authentic sources. 

As the Bible Society is so identified with the Book 
whose Story is here attempted, the origin, progress, and 
remarkable prosperity of the institution are given with 
some minuteness of detail, and this little volume will 
be found to contain simple and interesting information 
about the Society’s actual operations. 

It professes to be a narrative for the young; but we 



4 


PREFACE. 


arc greatly mistaken if it be not regarded as a book 
suited to all ages, and perused with interest by all who 
love the Book whose Story it gives. We are, indeed, 
anxious that the younger members of our families should 
look upon it as a volume intended for them, and pecu¬ 
liarly their own ; and we are sanguine enough to expect 
a large circulation. It is our earnest desire that parents 
and instructors of youth should be so fully convinced 
of the value of the Bible Society, as to lead them to 
embrace every opportunity to make its claims known; 
and the recommendation of this volume may be regard¬ 
ed, we think, as a likely means, under the Divine bless¬ 
ing, to interest the young in the great and glorious work 
of Bible-circulation. In this simple way they may be 
the means of raising up a multitude of ^^fellow-helpers” 
to the truth. If it is a satisfaction to be instrumental 
in catising the grass to grow, flowers to bloom, and trees 
to yield fruit, where all was barrenness and sterility be¬ 
fore, how much greater the privilege to be the means 
of leading others, not only to possess the Bible them¬ 
selves, but to labour and contribute toward its universal 
dissemination! 

The occasion of preparing this volume, as will be seen 
in the title-page, is the Jubilee of the Bible Society, 
—an occasion frmight with solemn reflections, and ac¬ 
companied with weighty responsibilities. 

The Narrative now introduced has peculiar claims 
upon the friends of the Society—claims which no other 
unofficial publication can possibly possess. It has been 
wi’itten by request, and solely with a view to promote 



PREFACE. 


5 


the objects of the institution. Great pains have been 
taken to render its varied contents as accurate as they 
are interesting. The Annual Keports, the Monthly 
Extracts of Correspondence, the History of the Society 
so far as written, and many other documents have been 
studied with care, while, to insure correctness, the tech¬ 
nical facts and figures have been submitted to the best 
authorities. 

It will be observed that the book is published at an 
unusually low ratef^with a view to more extensive cir¬ 
culation. We are persuaded that its perusal will spread 
a large amount of information in families and schools, 
the value of which cannot be told in gold and silver. 

It is our heart’s desire that the readers of this volume 
may be led to value the Sacred Scriptures more than 
ever, to feel grateful for the possession of the inesti¬ 
mable treasure, and for the liberty and opportunity to 
engage without let or hinderance in labours of Christian 
usefulness. Finally, we pray, that all who possess the 
Bible may become more sensible of their obligations to 
impart, to others—^to millions still destitute—the privi¬ 
leges and blessings they so abundantly enjoy,— remember¬ 
ing the words of the Lord Jesus ,—“It is more blessed 
TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE.” 

T. P. 


London, 1853. 







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-- ‘ .:r iLM&^ . - r ,»W»f 4 ,I 

-vA.-- : 4 V. . ^-^rwt 

'Mi '■• ■'*■ ' ■ 


AUTHOR’S PREFACE. 


In issuing the second Edition of this volume, the first 
having been exhausted in little more than a fortnight, the 
author gratefully acknowledges its kind reception by the 
friends of The British and FoREiaN Bible Society. 

The work ,was undertaken at the request of the Rev. T. 
Phillips, Jubilee Secretary of the Society, with the desire 
of blending scriptural information, in a form which should 
he interesting even to young children, with a compendious 
History of the Sacred Books,-in ancient and modern times, 
and the detail of their universal circulation. 

The volume has now been diligently revised ; some ad¬ 
ditions have been made to it, and a small portion of its 
material transposed. An Index, deemed indispensable, 
has also been supplied. 

For the zealous assistance of competent friends, and for 
the valuable and unremitting aid of the Jubilee Secretary, 
whose access to the archives of the Society enabled him to 
verify the continual references to its history, the author’s 
acknowledgments are gratefully rendered. 

For the beautiful Frontispiece, the author is indebted 

7 



8 


author’s preface. 


to the kindness of George Harvey, Esq., r. S.A., the 
accomplished painter of the original, and also to the 
talented engraver of it. 

While thus expressing gratitude for human aid, the 
writer would humbly and thankfully trace all ability to 
tell the Story of the Book to its Divine Author. May 
JHe he pleased to extend the usefulness of this labour of 
love in the cause of Bible distribution! And if many a 
young reader should yet arise from its perusal, and say, 
“I, too, must search the Book of God; I, too, must help 
to give it to the world,”—to God alone he all the glory! 

L. N. R. 


November ^ 1853. 



D 


CONTENTS. 


PART 1. 

THE BIBLE IN PAST AGES. 


CHAPTER 1. PAGE 

V 

The Book and its circulation by means of the Bible Society—The ages 
without the'Bible—Voices from Heaven—Patriarchal tradition—The 
flood—Renewed corruptions—Early idolatries—Ancient Egypt—The 
pyramids—The oldest coffin—Thebes, Karnak, hieroglyphics, Rosetta 
stone—Inscriptions on tombs—The bondage—Moses—Arabia—The 
Arabs—The book of Job—The Pejitateuch, how written—The Exode— 
Number of the people—How supported—Commencement of the age of 
miracle—Amalek—Wady Mokatteb.17 

CHAPTER II. 

Mount Sinai—The Covenant, the giving of the Law—The Jebel Mousa— 
Jehovah—Seven sins and their punishments—Eleven months at Sinai— 

The unknown thirty-eight years—The last year of the wandering—Mount 
Hor—The death of Aaron—The law as made known to the people— 
Fiery serpents—The death of Moses.35 

CHAPTER III. 

Entrance to the land—Joshua—The Canaanites—Joshua’s victories— 

^ Ebal and Gerizim—The Judges—The six serAdtudes—The times of the 
Kings—David—Solomon—Division of the kingdom — Shishak — The 
prophets, their rolls—Table of prophets—The lost ten tribes—The lost 
roll, the burnt roll—Captivity and return—Ezra’s ministry—Review of 
the history and prophecies concerning the fall of Israel, Nineveh, Juda, 
Tyre, Petra, Thebes, and Babylon.45 


9 




10 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


CHAPTER IV. 

The Jewish Bible complete—The Apocrypha—The Septuagint—Daniel’s 
two pictures—Antiochus Epiphanes—The Maccabees—Judas Maccabeus 
—The Roman power—Pompey—Caesar—The Druids—Their Hebrew 
origin—Serpent-worship—Druidical remains—Greek philosophers—He- 
rod—The temple—The synagogues—Traditions of the Pharisees—Tar- 
gums—Pharisees and Sadducees—The faithful few—The rabbins—John 
the Baptist—His ministry—Our Lord’s advent—His mission—Books of 
of the New Testament—The first century—Its apostles and elders—The 
Last Supper—Violent death of all who partook of it, except John—First 
and second pagan persecutions—Destruction of Jerusalem . . .72 

CHAPTER V. 

Gradual circulation of the New Testament—Earliest heresies—Uninspired 
teachers—Progress of the gospel—The Book becomes the guide—Eight 
more pagan persecutions—Particulars of these—Dioclesian’s medals— 
Reign of Constantine, his mistaken zeal—The rise of monasteries—Pro¬ 
gress of the papacy—Alaric—Versions of Scripture—The Alexandrine 
version—First protests—Vigilantius—Nestorius—The Nestorian Chris¬ 
tians—The Armenian church—The Paulicians—The Abyssinian church 
—The British church in Wales, in Scotland, in Ireland—Succat—Co- 
lumba—Iona.95 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Fall of England’s Protestantism—Augustine’s mission—Bede—King 
Alfred—General ignorance-^The Vaijdois church—Early protests— 
Claude of Turin—Vaudois colportenrs—Waldo—His translation of the 
Bible—Sketch of the Vaudois people—Their knowledge of Scripture— 
Innocent III.—The inquisition—Torments—Steadfastness—The vows of 
Luzerna—The Bohemian Christians.119 

CHAPTER VII. 

The earthquake council—John Wiclif—The law made at Toulouse—Romish 
revenge on Wiclif—His translation of the Scriptures—Lollard martyrs— 
Sawtre—Lady Jane Boughton—Lord Cobham—Black-friars’ monastery 
—Site of Bible-house—Printing—Anger of monks—Use of monasteries 
—Reading and writing of the Scriptures at Clugni—Translations pre¬ 
paring—Gift of the Vaudois church to France—Olivetan’s version—De 
Sacy’s version—Colporteurs—Translations of the Bible extant up to the 
sixteeth century—Particulars concerning each.130 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Tyndal—Erasmus—Tonstall—More—Wolsey—Search for Testaments in 
London, Oxford, and Cambridge—Scenes in St. Paul’s cathedral, and at 



CONTENTS. 


11 

PAGE 

Paul’s cross—Deaths of Tyndal and of Wolsey—Description of frontis¬ 
piece, with martyrdom of Ann Askew—Luther—List of languages before 
1804—Summing up of the narrative.152 


PART II. 

THE BIBLE SOCIETY'S HOUSE. 

THE PRINTING AND BINDING OF THE BIBLE. 

CHAPTER 1. 

The Bible-house—Its library—Wiclifs Testament—TyndaTs Bible—Cover- 
dale’s Bible—The Geneva Bible—The Bishops’ Bihle—Authorized version 
—Welsh Bible—European languages—S)ivedish Bible—Polyglots—Dutch 
Bible—Luther’s Bible—Bohemia Bible—Eastern languages—Persian 
Testament—Pali, Ilinduwee, Bengalee, <fec.—Separate translations of the 
Bible into Chinese—The Lord’s Prayer in all languages—The Douay 
version—The Society’s departed friends—The manuscript library—The 
Breton Bible—Wales and Britanny—Syrian, Persian, Chinese, Ethiopic, 
and Amharic manuscripts—The Amharic Bible—Mr. Jowett’s account 
of it—How the Society obtains its translation—Their revision—The 
general committee-room—The case of Bibles—The Bible for the blind— 

The sub-committee-room—Portraits—The Bible-warehouse . . .179 

CHAPTER 11. 

Bible-printing at Shaeklewell—Ancient printing office—The compositor— 

The reader—Stereotyping—Binding—Number employed . . . 199 


PART III. 

THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY’S RISE, PROGRESS, 
AND PRESENT OPERATIONS. 


CHAPTER I. 

Rev. T. Charles—Particulars of his youth—His missionary spirit—His 
usefulness to the young—Scarcity of the Scriptures in Wales—Circulating 






12 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

schools—Committing the Bible to memory—Grown-up scholars—Meet¬ 
ing of twenty schools—The little girl who had no Bible—The twelve 
peasants—Mr. Charles’s visit to London—Tract committee—Wants of 
Wales, and of the world—Formation of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society—Collection in Wales—Influential friends and supporters—Ob¬ 
jects and constitution of the Society, formed alike for home and the 
world—Its principle—Union and co-operation of all parties—Rev. J. 
Owen—Rev. J. Hughes.217 


CHAPTER II. 

Arrival of Bibles in Wales—Answer to prayer for Mr. Charles—His visit 
to Ireland—His funeral—Want of the Scriptures in Scotland and in 
France—Revocation of the edict of Nantes, and its results—Sufferings 
of the Huguenots and Vaudois—Reaction of infidelity—Desire of Eng¬ 
land to circulate the Bible in France—Oberlin and the Ban de la Roche 
—Scripture-readers—Bible Societies at Waldbach and Nuremberg— 
Scarcity of the Scriptures even in Europe—Their circulation among 
French and Spanish prisoners of war—Bible Society at Berlin—Willing¬ 
ness of a priest to distribute the New Testament—The field of labour in 
Asia—Chinese gospels in the British Museum—India and the Tamil 
language—Africa—America.230 

CHAPTER III. 

The Bible Society’s ‘‘Reports” not dull books: what it is that they contain 
—The sway of Great Britain and its purpose—The world’s inhabitants, 
in five classes—The work of the Bible Society among each—The way it 
is accomplished, by division of labour, and by various agents—The Bible 
Society like the banian tree, its fibres taking root in the Protestant coun¬ 
tries, first in England, by the auxiliaries and Bible Associations—The 
system gradually matured—Arrangementof districts—Ladies’committees- 
—The results of co-operation—Objections to the Society—Lord Teign- 
mouth’s answer—Mr. Dealtry’s—Mr. Ward’s—Operations at home—Ex¬ 
tracts from reports of collectors—The dying child—The old woman and 
the wool—The Bible-bees—The gun and the Bible—Mr. Dudley’s review 
—Death of Mr. Owen—Distribution of the Scriptures in Ireland— 
Anecdotes.242 


CHAPTER IV. 

The Bible Society in Holland—Ali Bey’s Turkish Bible—Prayer for Bible 
Societies—Germany—Its religious state previous to the existence of the 
Bible Society—Dr. Schwabe’s tour—Mr. Owen’s letters—Prussia—Royal 
- patronage—Switzerland—Antistes Hess—Dr. Steinkopff’s report—Lau¬ 
sanne Bible Society—Sweden—Norway—Iceland—Mr. Henderson’s let¬ 
ters—Denmark—The United States of America.263 



CONTENTS. 


13 


PAGE 

CHAPTER V. 

The Jews, after their dispersion, in Rome, Spain, Portugal, France, Ger¬ 
many, Turkey, and England—Their sufferings, and the remission of 
these—Their numbers all over the world—What the Society did for them 
in its first twenty-five years—Letters of Dr. Pinkerton from Russia— 
Jews of Thessalonica and Constantinople—Jewish converts—The So¬ 
ciety’s work among the Syrian Christians in the Armenian church, in 
the Nestorian,"and in the Abyssinian—Letters from Mr. Pearce—Grants 
to the Vaudois church—Its gratitude.279 

. CHAPTER VI. 

The work of the Bible Society among Roman Catholics—The Greek church 
—Distribution of the Bible by Roman Catholic priests—General willing¬ 
ness of the Roman Catholic laity to receive it—Anecdotes—Leander Van 
Ess—France—Professor Kieffer—The prayer of the dying sister, and its 
answer—Austria and Belgium—The Roman Catholic portions of Ger¬ 
many, Prussia, Poland, and Switzerland—Italy, Spain, and Portugal— 
Russia: the Bible Society there; its extinction—The tribe of Buriats— 
Turkey, European and Asiatic ; its mixed population—The Turks—Fo¬ 
reign agency—Mr. Barker—Greece—South America—Dr. Thomson—A 
few words on the Apocrypha—The Mohammedan countries—The Heathen 
countries. .300 


CHAPTER VII. 

Death of Lord TeignmouthJ and of Mr. Hughes—Bible colportage upon 
the continent—Osee Derbecq—Characteristics of colporteurs—The young 
Bible collector in Jersey—Juvenile Bible Associations—Individual efforts 
to distribute the Scriptures—The Testament among the fishing-people 
of Boulogne—A tract the pioneer of the Bible—Statistics of infidel 
publications.332 


CHAPTER VIII. 

Jubilee review of the heathen countries of the world—The Bible in India 
—In China: extraordinary religious movement there : Sew-tseuen, the 
leader of the insurgents—Japan, in all probability without a Bible— 
Loochoo islands ......... . 352 


CHAPTER IX. 

Jubilee review continued—Circulation of the Bible in Australia, Borneo, 
Tahiti, Rarotonga, Mangaia, New Zealand, and South Africa—The Bible 
among Mohammedans, in Roman Catholic countries, in Austria, in Spain 
and Portugal, in Switzerland and Italy, and in Franco .... 383 

2 





14 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER X. 


PAGE 


The old fountain restored in Assyria—The Nestorian church—American 
missions—Dr. Layard’s testimony—The Armenian, the Coptic, the . 
Abyssinian, and the Waldensian churches—The Jews—Jerusalem— 
Nazareth.405 


CHAPTER XL 

The Protestant countries: Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and 
Sweden—State of the Continent—Lord Bexley—Mr. Brandram—Wal^s 
—Scotland—England—Ireland—Home colporteurs and collectors—Fi¬ 
nal appeal—Motives for renewed exertion.428 



f jrufe auti ife 


PAET I. 

THE BIBLE m PAST AGES. 






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CHAPTER I. 

The Book and its Circulation by means of the Bible Society—The Ages without 
the Bible—Voices from Heaven—Patriarchal Tradition—The Flood—Re¬ 
newed Corruptions—Early Idolatries—Ancient Egypt—The Pyramids—■ 
The oldest Coffin—Thebes, Karnak, Hieroglyphics, Rosetta Stone—In¬ 
scription on Tombs—The Bondage—Moses—Arabia—The Arabs—The 
Book of Job—The Pentateuch, how written—The Exode—Number of the 
people—How supported—Commencement of the Age of Miracle—Amalek— 
Wady Mokatteb. 

THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 

In almost all the houses m England may now he found One 
Book—the oldest and the most wonderful book in the world. 

This Book, the Bible, is a Revelation from Grod. The word 
revelation means the rolling back of a veil; so the Bible unveils 
to man what otherwise he could not know of the-Q-reat God, of 
man, and of Jesus Christ, who is God and man ‘‘ in one person 
for ever.^^ 

God caused holy men to write on these subjects that which 
he taught them; and, being written, he meant it to be known 
throughout all the world, by every human creature. 

But this Book did not always lie upon almost every table in 
England. It is only within the lak fifty years that it entered 
into the minjs of some good men to help each other to print and 
send this Holy Bible forth to every land, and into eyery family; 
and when they had united themselves for this gieat work, they 
were called The British and Eoreiqn Bible Society. 

This Bible Society has a history, and they wish their history 

' ' ' ' ir 




18 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


written for those who were not born when their Society arose. 
They are in this year, 1853, celebrating their Jubilee—a year of 
public gladness and rejoicing over the work already done, and a 
year in which they wish to ask their young friends to help them 
to do very much more. 

Before, however, we begin to tell you the story of the Bible 
Society, which is a true and glorious tale, that will certainly stir 
all the young hearts that listen to it, to desire to work in its 
service, it will be necessary for you that we go back for a wLle 
to the story of the Book itself, and that we inquire what tha«. 
Book is, and whence it came. 

And now, while we attempt to lead you to retrace the times of 
its beginning, we have one request to make, that you will read, 
with your Bible by your side, and turn to the references made 
to Scripture as they occur. You have not to search through 

houses of rolls,^^ and long files of ancient manuscripts, to see if 
the story be true; for all the wonders that will be told you concern 
a small volume that can be held in the hand of the youngest 
child capable of understanding it. 

May the Holy Spirit of God lead us reverently to seek, through¬ 
out our lives, for ^^all truth” contained in his high and holy 
word, which is able to make us ^^wise,” and ^^wise unto salva¬ 
tion !” 


THE AGES WITHOUT THE BIBLE. 

You know, perhaps, that this world existed for 2500 years or 
more after the creation of mankind, without a written revelation; 
and Moses tells us, that, during that period, the wickedness of 
man was great upon the earth”—so that a just and holy God 
swept the whole human race away, and washed out their remem¬ 
brance, with the exception of one family, saved in the ark, to be 
the founders of new nations. 

Did you ever think of the way in which the Almighty, in the 
midst of this abounding wickedness, preserved among the few 
the kBowledge of his Namo ? He held immediate intercourse 



THE AGES WITHOUT THE BIBLE. 


19 


with one patriarch after another, by voices from heaven, and he 
had spoken much with Adam. Adam lived nearly 700 years 
after the birth of his grandson Enos, when it is said men began 
to call themselves by the name of the Lord.^^ With Adam, 
during the days of his long life, all who desired it might con¬ 
verse. Enos lived far into the days of the holy Enoch, of whom 
it is said that he walked with God, and was not, for God took 
him.” Enoch would certainly teach the truth to his own son 
Methuselah, with whom he lived 300 years: in giving him his 
name, he uttered a prophecy, for the word means, He dies, and 
it is sentand Methuselah died in the year of the flood. Noah, 
born 400 years after Methuselah, might have talked with him 
for 600 years before the flood, so that in a line of only flve per¬ 
sons, all that Adam, who was made in God’s own image, knew 
of his Creator” would be handed down from tongue to tongue; 
and doubtless Adam, Enoch, and Noah, at least, were actual 

preachers of righteousness’^ to all who would hear them. 

Shem, then, the son of Noah, who lived 600 years after he 
came out of the ark, and of whom it is said, Blessed be the 
Lord God of Shem,” would, with the other patriarchs, convey 
all that was known of God to the people fast growing up around 
them; and this knowledge would at first, in all probability, be 
carried, at the dispersion of mankind, into the different districts 
in which they settled. It is thought by some, that Noah himself 
went forth into China, Ham into Africa, Japheth into Europe, 
while Shem, who was the favoured son, remained in Asia—some 
of his descendants peopling Arabia. 

But with this possible knowledge of the true God, we know 
that very soon there was mingled the corruption” of a former 
world: men began to adore, in God’s stead, the sun and moon, 
which they did, because they observed them to be moving bodies, 
and thought them living ones, in the heavens. 

The Egyptians named their kings Pharaohy from Plira, the 
the sun, and worshipped them, when dead; and very early, as 
we learn from the picture-writing, or hieroglyphics, on the walls 
of their ancient temples, mixed up their true and noble notions 



20 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


of God, and of the past, and of the future, with base idolatries, 
not only of sun, moon, stars, and men, but of bruteS, reptiles, 
plants, and even insects. They bowed down to bulls, crocodiles, 
lily-flowers, onions, and beetles; yet they were men of mighty 
thoughts, and their ideas of building were so vast, that at this 
day we should say the records of their structures were fables, did 
not the immense remains exist, to witness to the truth of history. 
What child has not heard of the pyramids, now believed to be 
older than Abraham ? Many think that Job spoke of them when 
he referred to ^Hhe men who build desolate places for them¬ 
selves.^^ 

Three of these astonishing buildings stand eleven miles west 
of the Nile. The largest is built of hewn-stones, some of them 
thirty feet long. A French engineer has calculated that the 
stones of that huge pile, called the Great Pyramid,^^ would 
suffice to build a w^ll all round France, measuring 1800 miles— 
a wall one foot thick, and ten feet high. These vast mountains 
of stone appear to have been intended as tombs for the kings of 
Egypt. Since the year 1834, we have been sure of this, for in 
the third pyramid of Ghizeh has been found the coffin of the 
king for whom it was built—the coffin of King Mycerinus. For 
this discovery, Europe is indebted to Colonel Howard Yyse. 

In its sepulchral chamber, he discovered a sarcophagus, or stone 
coffin, and on the floor a mummy-case, or rather its broken lid, 
(for the pyramid had been rifled hundreds of years before by the 
Saracens,) which proved to be, from the picture-writing upon it, 
the sarcophagus and coffin of the builder. 

That ancient lid, perhaps 4000 years old, is now in the British 
Museum; you can go and see it there; and the far-off time to 
which it belongs, and the certainty of the occupant, throw an 
awful interest round this relic of the first Pharaohs. 

These ancient and extraordinary Egyptians, whose thoughts 
seem always to have been occupied with their temples and their 
tombs, believed that the spirit, when it left the body, wandered 
on, never resting, giving life to some beast of the field, some 
fowl of the air, some fish of the sea,—waiting for the redemption 



THE AGES WITHOUT THE BIBLE. 


21 


of the original body; therefore they took great pains to preserve 
their bodies after death, in time-proof mansions. They had no 
written revelation to whieh to refer, to set them right when they 
were wrong; and after the death of the patriarchs, they derived 
their knowledge from tradition, or that which one told another j 
for God never spoke them by a voice from heaven. 

Before we leave them, and with Israel go up out of Egypt, 
under the care of Moses, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyp¬ 
tians,^^ you would like to follow with us for a little while the 
steps of recent travellers into this region. You must take nine¬ 
teen days’ journey up the Nile, to the ancient Thebes, which 
was Egypt’s old metropolis, long before Israel was settled in the 
land of Goshen. 

Thebes or Theba means the ark; and the chief temple there 
seems to have been built in commemoration of the deluge;—a 
boat-like shrine was the most sacred object in the ancient Egyp¬ 
tian temples. 

Thebes is a city that was thought worthy of mention in Scrip¬ 
ture : it is there called, No-Ammon,” ‘^populous No,” per¬ 
haps from No-ah. Its acres of ruins remain to this day. Belzoni 
says, that among them he felt as in a city that had been built by 
giants. Its situation is grander than even that of the seven- 
hilled city of Borne. The whole valley of the Nile was not 
large enough to contain it, and its extremities rested on the bases 
of the mountains of Arabia and Africa.” 

It stood upon a vast plain describing a circuit of thirty miles, 
and was called the City of the Hundred Gates,” and the whole 
extent is still strewed with broken columns, avenues of sphinxes, 
colossal figures, obelisks, porticoes, blocks of polished granite; 
and above these, in all the nakedness of desolation, tower 
the amazing pillars of the ancient temples. The largest and 
the oldest among these ruins is called ^Hhe Temple of 
Karnak;” and 134 of its pillars are still standing in rows, 
nine deep. There is no other such assembly of pillars in 
the world: they are covered with paintings of gods, kings, 



22 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 



A Sphinx. 


priests, and warriors: the walls and roof are still glowing with 
the richest colours. Some parts of this temple, at least, are 
older than the days of Moses—1600 years before the birth of 
Christ. 

The interest of these ruins is unspeakable, because those who 
are acquainted with the subject know that the ancient history of 
Egypt is to be read in these vast old books of stone. Men have 
only lately acquired the power to read them. The picture-writ¬ 
ing (or hieroglyphics) on their pillars and tablets is thought to 
have been known only to the priests, and has for more than 2000 
years been a mystery to the world. Moses probably understood 
it, for he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,^^ 
(Acts vii. 22.) 

Mr. Gliddon, formerly the American consul in Egypt, and who 
devoted his attention for many years to the study of hieroglyphics, 
has, we think, made clear even to a child how this kind of writing 
arose. 

He says, Suppose we wished to write the word ^ America’ in 
our language, in hieroglyphics, as the Egyptians did, we should 
draw a figure beginning with— 





HIEROGLYPHICS. 


23 


A, for instance, an asp, the emblem of sovereignty; 

M, of military dominion, a mace; 

E, the national arms, an eagle; 

B, sign of intellectual power, horns of a ram; 

I, the juvenile age of the country, an infant; 

C, civilized religion, sacred cake; 

A, Tau, or Egyptian emblem of eternal life; 

To show that by this we mean a country^ I add the sign 
, in Coptic ^ Kah,^ meaning a country. 

We thus obtain— 

A M E B I C A; 



COUNTRY.” 


These are called pure hieroglyphics, and are found on the oldest 
monuments and papyri. 

The pure hieroglyphics afterward became linear, or line-like, 
as reduced from the rude pictures— 





24 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Pure. Linear. . 

A reed, used for letter A. 


K jackal, symbol of d.'prie&t. 

A (joose used for letter S, figuratively the hird 
goose—symbol of offspring.^ . 

The pure class was always sculptured or painted, and, in gene¬ 
ral, both sculptured and painted were employed on public edifices. 
The linear was preferred in ordinary life and writing. 

This writing became known to the moderns through a slab of 
black marble, with inscriptions upon it, in three different charac¬ 
ters, but all meaning the same thing, dug up by a French officer 
of engineers, on the western bank of the Nile, in August, 1799, 




Rosetta Stone. 



ROSETTA STONE. 


25 


at Eosetta, not far from the mouth of the Nile. It is called the 

Eosetta Stone/’ and is now in the British Museum. 

We have given you a drawing of it for those who cannot go and 
see it, and a specimen of the characters in which the three lan¬ 
guages are written. Learned men found they could read the last 
inscription in Greek; and then, letter by letter, and with much 
pains-taking, they found the alphabet of the two others; and so 
this stone, more valuable to them than the wonderful Koh-i-noor, 
has enabled them to read the histories of those grand, old, dead 
kings, on their tombs. 

The event recorded on the stone is not so wonderful in itself: 
it concerns the coronation of King Epiphanes, which took place 
at Memphis, 196 years before Christ; but whatever be the in¬ 
scription, it has proved the key to many more. 

One of the most remarkable inscriptions on the tombs at Thebes 
is the balance scene, which is laid in the world of spirits. Osiris, 
the chief god of the Egyptians, is seated on a throne of judgment, 
with Isis his consort by his side; a soul is conducted into his pre¬ 
sence. Anubis, painted with the head of a jackal, superintends 
the balance, in which the good and bad actions of the soul are 
laid; and Thoth, a kind of recording angel, having the head of a 
hawk, stands by, with a tablet and pen in his hand, to record the 
judgment given. 

There are also upon the walls of Thebes inscriptions a thousand 
times more interesting than this to the readers of the Bible, be¬ 
cause they serve as proofs of the events which it records. The 
bondage of the children of Israel, in Egypt, is thus confirmed by 
a tablet representing them on the tomb of Eekshare. Eekshar^ 
is known to have been the chief architect of the temples and palaces 
at Thebes, under Pharaoh Moeris. The physiognomy of the Jews 
it is impossible to mistake : and the splashes of clay with which 
their bodies are covered,—the idea of labour that is conveyed,— 
the Egyptian taskmaster seated with his heavy baton, whose blows 
would certainly visit some weary slave, resting a moment from his 
toilsome task of making bricks, and spreading them to dry in the 
burning sun of Egypt,—all give proof of the exactness of the 

3 



26 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Scripture phrase, all their service that they made them serve 
was with rigour.^^ 

The inscription at the top of the picture to the right reads, 
Captives brought by his majesty, to build the temples of the 
Great God.^’ This probably means, that the family or gang of 
Israelites, here represented, had been marched up from Goshen, 
and attached to the building of the temple; at Thebes. We know, 
from Exod. i. 11, 12, that they were compelled to build ^^for 
Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom and Raamses.^^ 

But the time of that bondage had an end, and the sigh’^ and 
cYj” of the oppressed people came up unto God. They had not 
forgotten that they were the children of a Mighty Promise; and 
God, too, looked down upon them, and heard their groaning, 
and remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and 
with Jacob. 

He had so ordered it, that eighty years before, one of the He¬ 
brew babes doomed to destruction had, by its exceeding beauty, 
won the favour of Pharaoh’s daughter; and the child, separated 
from its people, had grown up beneath the shadow of the Egyp¬ 
tian throne; yet, nursed by its mother in its early days, and taught, 
while she nursed him, all she knew of the dealings of God with 
his people in the ages before the flood and after it, Moses had 
treasured her sayings in his heart. He could not be ignorant of 
the future prospects of his race; and it seems that he considered 
he was raised up to deliver them at once, in the hour when he 
smote the Egyptian for their sake; but they rejected his help, 
learned though he was, and “ mighty in words and in deeds.” 

He was then only forty years of age; and God had lessons for 
him to learn for forty years more, in the solitudes of Midian, of a 
very different kind from those which he had learned in Egypt, but 
equally necessary to flt him to be the leader of this chosen people. 

Here, by a long process of quiet teaching, the ardent zeal of 
his youth was mellowed by that spirit of humility and patience 
which the Divine Being poured out upon him. This fresh wis¬ 
dom” was given to him in Arabia; and with Arabia we must 
begin a new section. 



ARABIA. 


27 


ARABIA. 

The three great nations of remote antiquity are the Egyptians, 
the Arabians, and the Jews. 

The Arabs are a people who can bring monuments of their his¬ 
tory almost from the very deluge. For the nature of their coun¬ 
try, its three divisions, its three evils, its three animals, and its 
three productions, we advise you to search in that beautiful book, 
called Far which is, or ought to be, in all-our school¬ 

rooms ; and to the information you will there find, we will add a 
few more particulars, as we wish you to realize Arabia, especially 
the north-western part of it, as it was in the days of Moses. 

Arabia has-been called Africa in little.It was, as it is now, 
a country ivithout a navigable river—the camel its ship of com¬ 
merce, and its horses the finest in the world. An Arab, on a 
mare unrivalled for speed and endurance, is his own master,^’ says 
Mr. Layard, and can defy the world. Without his mare, money 
would be of no value to him; he could only keep the gold by 
burying it in some secret place; and he is himself never two days 
in the same spot, but wanders over three or four hundred miles in 
the space of a few months. Give him the desert, his mare, and 
his spear, with power to plunder and rob for the mere pleasure 
and excitement it afibrds, and he will not envy the wealth or 
power of the greatest of the earth. 

Such was and such is the Bedouin of the deserts—the Saracen 
of the middle ages—who has never by any conquest been driven 
out of his country—a vast space of winding sands, where those 
who travel now declare that not even a wolf can live three days 
unless he feeds on stone and granite. Perhaps, because it is such 
a country, the Arab has of necessity reaped the harvests of sur¬ 
rounding lands,—his hand against every man, and every man’s 
hand against him.” His fathers have been th.6 conquerors of all 
modern eastern nations, and his language is spoken more or less 
from India to the Atlantic. The Arabs say that they are sprung 


By the author of ‘‘Line upon Line/’ and “Near Homo.’ 




28 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


from two sources, that a part of them are the sons of Ishmael, 
and are the naturalized Arabs, but that the pure Arabs, Arab- 
el-Arab,^^ are the sons of Joktan, the great-great-grandson of 
Shem. We shall only notice, among their tribes, the Jobaritae, 
who are said to claim descent from Job of the Bible.* 

Now, it is by almost all learned men admitted that the book 
of Job is of extreme antiquity. The Syrian Christians place it 
as the first book in their Bibles. It may give you a new and 
very interesting view of this book if, after reading the first ten 
chapters of Genesis, the account of the creation and^the flood, 
you read the history of this patriarch before commencing the life 
of Abraham. Job is believed, by some of the most eminent eastern 
scholars, to have been an Arabian emir, or chief; and his story 
casts, we think, a flood of light on an otherwise dark part of 
the world^s history.^^'j' 

We can imagine Moses, in Midian, which was a neighbouring 
district to that in which Job had lived, centuries before, as find¬ 
ing in some written character, which he from his Egyptian wis¬ 
dom understood, the records left of this great man, before whom 

princes and nobles had been silent,^^ and, under the immediate 
inspiration of God, casting these records into the form of a He¬ 
brew poem, as a picture of patience and impatience, for the 
benefit of his suffering brethren. The book of Job is generally 
considered to have been written or translated by Moses. Pos¬ 
sibly he also wrote in Midian, in the long days of bis secluded 
shepherd life, and also by God’s teaching, the book of Genesis. 

We must give you a few reasons why it has been supposed that 
the book of Job is so old. 

His long life of certainly two, and perhaps three or four, hun¬ 
dred years. 

The absence of any reference in the book to God’s dealings 
with Abraham or bis children ; and of any notice of the destruc¬ 
tion of Sodom and Gomorrah. 


Forster’s “ Geography of Arabia.” 
f Smith’s “ Patriarchal Age,” p. 416. 




THE PENTATEUCH. 


29 


The worship of the sun and moon being the only species of 
idolatry mentioned in the book, (Job xxxi. 26.) 

The manners and customs described, which are those of the 
earliest patriarchs. 

And Job’s religion, which is exactly and purely patriarchal. 

The learned men above referred to are of opinion that there is 
sufficient proof that Job lived between the deluge and the call of 
Abraham,* so that God never left the world at any period with¬ 
out a witness to his truth. The magnificence of the thoughts 
uttered both by Job and his friends, and, above all, by God, 
when he answered Job out of the whirlwind, you will perceive 
more and more as you grow older; and, as you are reading, you 
will indeed be ready to say, How much these ancient Arabians 
knew of God !” The patriarch Job and his friends, notwith¬ 
standing the mistakes they made, are men who seem to have con¬ 
versed with the Invisible, to have read him reverently in the 
vast volume of his works, and also to have received, from of old, 
the prophecies of the latter-day glory, (Job xix. 25;) while, as 
concerning worldly knowledge—the art of mining, (xxviii.;) the 
art of weaving, (vii. 6;) the conveyance of merchandise by cara- 
' vans, (vi. 19;) the refining of metals, (xxviii. 1;) the coinage 
of money, (xlii. 11;) the use of musical instruments, (xxi. 12)— 
all were understood and practised. 

It may be, you never thought of this state of things as existing 
before the giving of the Law on Sinai. We are now passing into 
the age when the Pentateuch began to be written. Perhaps you 
will like to think of the material it was written upon, and the 
character in which Moses wrote it. This is a piece of ancient 
Hebrew—the language in which the law was written— 



The Bible was written by degrees, and by different persons: 


Job alludes to the deluge, ix. 5, 6; also xii. 15. 

3 *- 




30 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


it took 1600 years to write. The first five books were written by 
Moses in the wilderness, as well as the book of Job ; viz : 
Genesis, Numbers, 

Exodus, Deuteronomy, 

Leviticus, 

called, by the Grecian Jews, The Pentateuch.^' The rest of 
the Old Testament books, thirty-three in number, were written 
by different inspired leaders, prophets, priests, and kings of 
Israel, but all by Israelites—the people whom God had chosen, 
and was now about to separate from the heathen nations, to be 
the keepers of his holy oracles : and as they were written, God 
himself made laws that they should be read, by the Levites, to 
the people continually. 

But at that time there were no books like our books. The 
time of Moses was 1550 years before Christ our Saviour came 
into the world. Our mode of printing or of making paper had 
not then been discovered. The old Egyptians made linen, in 
which they wrapped their mummies, and so prepared it, that 
they could trace hieroglyphics upon it. They also wrote upon 
rolls made of their rush-papyrus, that is, of the coats which sur¬ 
round its stalk. The largest papyrus roll now known, is ten 
yards long: many of these are found in the tombs of Egypt, 
though not often of so great a length. A very valuable one has 
been taken from these tombs to the museum at Turin, contain¬ 
ing the names of King Mycerinus, the builder of the third pyra¬ 
mid, and Bekshare, the architect of Thebes; but the Pentateuch 
of Moses is not supposed to have been written on this rush 
paper. 

It is thought that he must have used goat-skins, prepared and 
fastened together : the very oldest manuscripts of his five books 
known are written on leather. There is one in the public 
library at Cambridge, which was discovered by Dr. Buchanan, 
in the record-chest of a synagogue of the Black Jews in Malabar, 
in 1806 : it measures sixteen yards in length; and, though not 
perfect, consists of thirty-seven skins dyed red. There is another 



THE EXODE. 


31 


in tlie library of the British Mu¬ 
seum, which we have seen. That 
is a large double roll of this descrip¬ 
tion. It is written with great care, 
on forty thick brown skins, in 153 
narrow columns : the writing is, of 
course, in Hebrew. We looked 
upon it with great reverence, for it 
was, most probably, in this form 
that the world received the first 
part of the word of God—his writ¬ 
ten voice from heaven, 
flock among the mountains of the 
desert, that Moses was first made sensible^of the visible and 
miraculous presence of God, by the voice out of the burning 
bush, and entered upon that wonderful life of actual converse 
with the Divine Being, which was like the life of no other mortal 
man, before or since his time. 

The opening of this intercourse took place at Horeb—a name 
now applied to the mountain at whose base stands the convent of 
St. Catherine. The token of his mission given to Moses was, 
that when he had brought the people out of Egypt, they should 
serve God upon that mountain.^^ Here, therefore, they actually 
encamped; and the same place, with all its mighty memories, 
was the retreat of Elijah, 600 years afterward, from the threats 
of Jezebel. 

We need not detail to you the rapid succession of plagues 
showered upon the oppressors of the Israelites, or speak at any 
length upon what happened between the going up out of Egypt 
and the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai. There were great 
miracles comprised in this six weeks’ history; and you will find 
them recorded from the I4th to the 17th chapters of Exodus. 

From this time the history of this wonderful people was marked 
by miracle : and, going forth into the desert through those won¬ 
drous walls of water, formed by the Bed Sea, they had no sooner 
experienced hunger, than bread was rained from heaven for them, 



It was while feeding his 



32 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


and the hitter spring of the wilderness was sweetened for their 
sake. This springs is yet existing, and is called Ain Howaray 
the hitter well. 

Have you ever thought of the numbers of the children of Israel 
who thus went up out of Egypt ? It was such an emigration as 
the world never saw, save on this occasion. There were between 
two and three millions of people, twice as many as inhabit the 
Principality of Wales, or more than all the people contained in 
London and its neighbourhood, with all their property, goods, 
utensils, and cattle. No man, with merely human resources at 
his command, could ever have arranged the order of their march; 
but the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to 
lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them 
light; to go by day and by night,^^ (Exod. xiii. 21;) a pillar 
ever before their eyes, high over the camp, where no mortal art 
could have placed it. 

At Rephidim, they were again distressed for want of water, 
and again it was provided for them by miracle. The thirst of 
which they complained, and which they said would kill them,^^ 
is best understood by persons who have travelled on foot over a 
sandy desert under a burning sun. The pillar of cloud led the 
way for Moses and the elders, while the former went to smite the 
rock in Horeb, which is found to be a day's journey from Re- 
phidim, and so situated at the head of a valley, that a stream of 
water from it would come fiowing and rushing down to the faint 
and weary host at Rephidim : but, meanwhile, the hindmost of 
them, the feeble among them," had been attacked by Amalek, 

who feared not God." 

Up to this period, we had not heard any thing of the ancient 
Arabians, nor of what they felt toward the vast host of Israelites 
making a sudden incursion into their country. 

The tribe of Amalek is mentioned in history as inhabiting the 
deserts to the south of Palestine, and being one of the most 
famous Arab tribes. They had probably heard of the wealth of 
the Israelites—the spoils they had brought out of Egypt; and 
as Bedouins (who in all ages have been famous for committing 



WADY MOKATTEB. 


33 


robberies on merchants and travellers) would do now, so these 
Amalekites then resolved to attack Israel. 

There were two descriptions of Arabs—those who dwelt in 
cities and towns, and those who dwelt in tents. Job belonged 
to the former race, and these Amalekites to the latter. He 
describes his wild brethren in the 24th chapter of his book as 
“ wild asses of the desert, rising betimes for a prey,^^ etc. Their 
desert is still their kingdom : no travellers may pass through it 
without their leave, and without purchasing their guidance and 
protection. Arabs lead you up to the Pyramids, and convey you 
to Sinai and Petra. You must rest when they sutler you to do 
so, and pass on when they please; and many of them are terrible- 
looking fellows, with swarthy complexions, piercing coal-black 
eyes, half-naked figures, enormous swords slung at their backs, 
and rusty matchlocks in their hands. You might travel with 
them for weeks, and never see one of them wash his face, or 
know that he washed or changed his clothes. What they live 
on, it would be difficult to say, for they are seldom seen to eat; 
but they are active and vigorous, and can walk thirty miles a 
day for week after week in succession. 

Against these wild people, the Israelites were directed by 
Moses to go out and fight, while he held up his hands at the top 
of the hill, and prayed. 

Laborde, a well-known traveller in Arabia Petrea, the desert 
district where all these events occurred, says, ^^We passed 
through the Wady Mokatteb, which means written valley^ and 
beheld the rocks covered with inscriptions for the length of an 
entire league. We afterward passed mountains, called Jebel-el 
Mokatteb, which means written mountains; and, as we rode 
along, perceived, during a whole hour, hosts of inscriptions in an 
unknown character, carved in these hard rocks, to a height which 
was ten or twelve feet from the ground: and although we had 
men among us who understood the Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, 
Syriac, Coptic, Latin, Armenian, Turkish, English, Illyrian, 
German, French, and Bohemian languages, there was not one of 
us who had the slightest knowledge of the characters engraved 

I 



34 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


on these rocks, with groat labour, in a country where there is 
nothing to be had either to eat or drink/' 



The meaning of these inscriptions was thus, like their author¬ 
ship, unknown. In a book lately published, however, called 
^‘The Voice of Israel, from the Rocks of Sinai," the Rev. Charles 
Forster, an English clergyman, and a man of much learning and 
patient research, has suggested that these are the ^^rock-tablet 
records" of the miracles wrought in the wilderness. 

We have now concluded our brief review of the ages that 
elapsed before the giving of the Law; and with something of the 
reverence felt by the chosen people, let us realize the scenery of 
Mount Sinai. 






CHAPTER II. 


Mount Sinai—The Covenant, the Giving of the Law—The Jehel Mousa—Je¬ 
hovah—Seven Sins and their Punishments—Eleven months at Sinai—The 
unknown Thirty-eight Years—The last Year of the Wandering—Mount Hor— 
The Death of Aaron—The Law as made known to the People—Eiery Ser¬ 
pents—The Death of Moses. v- 


SINAI. 

It seems to be the testimony of all modern travellers^ that the 
scenery of tbe mountain range of Sinai is of great extent^ and of 
wild and awful grandeur. 

stand/^ says Mr. StepbenS; ^^upon the very peak of Sinai; 
where Moses stood when he talked with the Almighty. Can it 
be, or is it a mere dream ? Can this naked rock have been the 
witness of that great interview between man and his Creator^ on 
the morning that was ushered in with terrible thunders and 
lightnings; with the thick clouds resting on the mountain’s brow? 
Yes ! this is the holy mountain; and not a place on all the earth 
could have been chosen; so fitted for the manifestation of Divine 
power. I have stood on the summit of the giant Etna; and 
looked over the clouds floating beneath it;—upon the bold scenery 
of Sicily; and the distant mountains of Calabria. I have climbed 
Vesuvius; and looked down upon the waves of lava; and the ruined 
and half-recovered cities at its foot: but these are nothing com¬ 
pared to the terrific solitude and bleak majesty of Sinai.” An¬ 
other traveller has called it ‘‘a, perfect sea of desolation. Not a 
tree; or shrub; or blade of grass is to be seen upon the bare and 
rugged sides of innumerable mountains; heaving their naked 
summits to the skies; while the crumbling masses of granite 
around; and the distant view of the Syrian desert; with its bound¬ 
less waste of sandS; form the wildest and' most dreary; the most 
terrific and desolate picture the imagination can conceive.” 


36 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


It was in this solemn region that God claimed Israel for his 
own^ and began to place the nation under a course of instruction 
and discipline^ to prepare it for its high destiny. Here he 
called his chosen people into covenant relation with himself. He 
told them, through Moses, that He had borne them on eagles’ 
wings out of Egypt; and that if they would obey and keep his 
covengjit, then they should be a peculiar treasure to Him above 
all people—a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And all the 
people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath 
spoken we will do.” No other such mighty shout of promise 
ever arose from earth to heaven; ^^and Moses told the words of 
the people unto the Lord.” Exod. xix. 8. 

When God descended to give the Law to his people, the Di¬ 
vine glory was revealed from Teman in the east of Edom, to 
Paran or Serbal in the west., It literally covered the heavens to 
this extent. Serbal has five principal peaks, which, like the 
lofty pinnacles of some stupendous temple, rise up into the calm, 
deep blue of heaven, lone, silent, and sublime. 

Let us read the description of Moses,—for who could describe 
like Moses the scenery of Sinai ? The Lord came from Sinai, 
and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from mount 
Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his 
right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved the peo¬ 
ple ; all his saints are in thy hand : and they sat down at thy 
feet; every one shall receive of thy words.” Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3. 

King David refers to this hour, when, 500 years afterward, he 
says, in his 68th Psalm, verse 17, The chariots of God are 
twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among 
them as in Sinai, on the holy mount.” 

We will try and imagine this scene,—one of the most awfully 
sublime in the annals of the world. 

Moses had brought the people forth out of the camp to meet 
with God :” their tents were spread on the skirts of Horeb, where 
its narrow valleys widen gradually into high, dreary, undulating 
plains, hemmed in by low ridges of hills. Possibly these camp¬ 
ing-grounds may have included all the vast plains round about 



MOUNT SINAI. 


37 


the motmtains El Ilahah, Seba-iyeh, and El Leja—for two or 
three millions of persons required a great extent of space. Be¬ 
fore them all rose to the height of 2000 feet (being 7000 above 
the Red Sea) the Jebel Mousa, with its shattered pyramidal 
peak-, like a mighty pulpit, fenced oflF by a range of sharp, up¬ 
heaving crags, 200 feet in height, and forming an almost im¬ 
passable barrier to the Mount of God itself, though Moses had 
likewise set bounds about it, to sanctify it.'’^ 

While the people stood thus at the nether part of the mount,^^ 
let us imagine the effulgence reflected from the whole of the 
Arabian desert, and listen to the sounds of the trumpet, ‘^ex¬ 
ceeding loud,’^ echoing round all the mountains, preparing the 
way for the mighty angel-voices of the holy myriads uttering the 
Law; and then let us remember loho was this Jehovah upon 
Sinai,—the Jehovah of the Jewish Church in the wilderness. 
The martyr Stephen tells us, just before his death, that the angel 
which spake to Moses in Mount Sinai was none other than the 
angel of the burning bush—the angel of the Lord, who had said 
of himself, “I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, 
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,^’ before whom Moses 
“trembled and durst not behold,^^ (Acts vii. 32;) and also none 
other than the Saviour, the afterward crucified Redeemer of the 
world, whose voice (says Paul, Heb. xii. 26) “then shook the 
earth: but now he hath promised. Yet once more I shake not 
the earth only, but also heaven.^^ 

Dear young friends, when you have thought of Jesus taking 
upon him the form of a servant, have you also thought of that 
Jesus as one and the same with the awful Jehovah of Sinai ? At 
both times it is said of him, “ yet he loved the people,’^ (Deut. 
xxxiii. 3,) and “for his great love wherewith he loved us.” Eph. ii.4. 

It is good to go back in thought to Sinai, and to realize that 
the great God has actually spoken with men upon the earth. 

Many of the travellers who have visited these regions have en¬ 
joyed the privilege of opening their Bibles and reading, on the 
summits of Sinai and Horeb, the accounts which Moses gives, in 
the very scenes which'they concern. 

4 



38 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


SEVEN SINS AND THEIR PUNISHMENTS; OR, 

THE WILDERNESS LIEE. 

When Grod had thus spoken, in majesty and fire, to the ear 
and eye of the favoured people, he did not intend the impression 
of that day to pass away: he had given them a Revelation,—a 
Law that was to separate them from all other people; and his 
words to them were to endure for ever. 

We have not undertaken the task of reviewing the whole his¬ 
tory of Israel, except as concerns one particular, which we wish 
you especially to observe. 

From the time that they became, through Moses, the keepers 
of the oracles of God, they vjere judged hy them, and they were 
expected to live by them; they became The Church of the 
Book. 

They had subscribed to the covenant; they had said, ^^All 
that the Lord hath spoken we will do.’^ They were under the 
Law”; and whenever they broke their promise, they incurred 
punishment and suffering, and this they continually did. 

They remained at their station in Horeb a few days longer than 
eleven months. During this time, Jehovah made them fully un¬ 
derstand that he was their King, and he established the regular 
service of his royal court by the priests and Levites. He set 
apart more than a fiftieth portion of the whole nation to this office. 
They were to receive his Law from Moses, to copy it, and to read 
it to the people,—not only the Ten Commandments, as written 
by the finger of God upon the two tables of stone, but the Book 
of the Covenant also, which Moses had written, (Exod. xxiv. 4,) 
and read in the audience of the people for the first time, by the 
altar under the hill.” 

During these eleven months, their form of government in all 
things was appointed, their institutions established, and the Ta¬ 
bernacle fashioned and set up according to the pattern shown to 
Moses in the mount,” for the house or palace of their Divine King, 
who always visibly dwelt among them in the glory that was be¬ 
tween the cherubim. 



SEVEN SINS AND THEIR PUNISHMENTS. 


39 


The same period witnessed their breach of the first command¬ 
ment, Thou shalt have none other gods but me/^ in the worship 
of the golden calf, and its punishment in the death of 3000 among 
the people. 

The second sin was committed by the two disobedient priests 
who offered the strange fire, and they also were consumed. 

The third transgression was against the third commandment: 
the son of an Egyptian father “ blasphemed the Name, and 
cursed.He was brought without the camp, and stoned to death. 

The fourth concerned murmuring about the manna, of which 
they began to get tired. In this case, the punishment was given 
by granting their desire : they were to have flesh for a whole 
month, which, beginning to eat greedily and ravenously, a great 
number of them died, and were buried on the spot. 

The fifth was upon Miriam, who was smitten with leprosy, for 
bearing false witness against her brother Moses. It is said, con¬ 
cerning this,^ that the Lord heard.^^ 

The sixth sin was that of the unfaithful spies: they went up 
in the second year of the wandering to see the land of Palestine, 
and, in consequence of their search, discouraged the people. They 
brought back glorious grapes from it, but they said the men of 
the land were giants, and that they should not be able to go up 
against them. 

The Syrian vine is still famous for the size of its clusters. 
There is one of these vines in the grounds of the Duke of Port¬ 
land, at Welbeck, near Worksop, from which a cluster of grapes 
was gathered, in 1819, weighing nineteen pounds; and intelligent 
travellers aver, that those who have only seen the vines in France 
and Italy can have no just idea of the size to which the clusters 
attain in Syria. 

The evil part of their report was not probably in itself incorrect, 
that they had seen people of great stature; for Moses verifies theii 
statement in speaking of the Anakim, great and tall,^^ and of 
other old gigantic tribes, with a reference to the sons of Anak; 
and in the prophecy of Amos it is said, (Amos ii. 9,) ^^yet de¬ 
stroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the 



40 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


height of the cedars, and who was strong as the oaks.’^ Goliath, 
whom David slew,, was a son of Anak; his stature may be taken 
at about nine feet; but they forgot that He who had dried up the 
Red Sea before them, and had overcome the Egyptians with his 
mighty plagues,—if his pillar of cloud and fire had pointed them 
toward the high-walled cities of the tall Anakim,—would have 
given them victory in Palestine also; but, as Moses afterward 
says to them, (Deut. i. 32,) ‘^In this thing ye did not believe the 
Lord your God/^ 

The most formidable conspiracy against the authority of Moses 
and Aaron took place at Kadesh, soon after the doom of forty 
years^ wandering had been pronounced. They, or rather their 
sons, returned to this Kadesh only after a period of thirty-eight 
years, during which we know nothing minutely of their proceed¬ 
ings. All that has been related, the present conspiracy included, 
which makes the seventh occasion of their punishment, occurred 
during the first two years after their leaving Egypt. Moses says, 
(Deut. ii. 14,) And the space in which we came from Kadesh- 
Barnea, until we were come over the brook of Zered, was thirty 
and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were 
wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them.'” 
The brook Zered enters the Dead Sea near the southern end; and 
when that was crossed, they had ended their long pilgrimage, 
and entered into a cultivated and settled country. The conspi¬ 
racy at Kadesh (Num. xvi.) was very bold. It arose among the 
children of Reuben, the elder tribe, and the children of Levi, 
the priestly tribe. Their encampments were side by side, at the 
south of the Tabernacle, and they seem to have indulged an en¬ 
vious spirit against Moses and Aaron, until at length their chiefs 
gathered themselves together, and said to these two men ordained 
of God, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congrega¬ 
tion are holy, and the Lord is among them.” 

The Lord was among them, however, to punish this desire of 
power which did not belong to them, and the earth opened upon 
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and as they and all they had went 
down into the pit, all Israel fled at the cry of them, while at the 



DEATH OF AARON. 


41 


same time 250 persons more were consumed by fire : and because 
at this the people murmured, a plague raged on the morrow among 
them, by which 14,700 died, besides those that died the day be¬ 
fore with Korah. 

Thus you see many lives were lost in the repeated rebellions 
of the people. They had multiplied rapidly in Egypt, but they 
were about 2000 less in number when about to enter the Promised 
Land. The new generation, though for so many years trained 
and tried, murmured like their fathers for the want of water, on 
their return to Kadesh, where Miriam died and was buried; and 
Moses does not seem to have been prepared to expect such con¬ 
duct from them, but was more irritated than on any former occa¬ 
sion. Even he, as David tells us, spake unadvisedly with his 
lips,—and, striking the rock instead of speaking to it, (must it 
not have been struck with the rod which blossomed, taken from 
before the Lord?) said angrily, ^Mlear now, ye rebels! Must we 
fetch you water out of this rock?’^ For this impatience, he and 
Aaron, who appears to have shared in his sin, which God him¬ 
self says was unbelief,—‘‘because ye believed me not, to sanctify 
me before the people,^^—even these two great leaders were not 
permitted to guide Israel into the Promised Land. 

Aaron went up first into Mount Hor to die, from whose craggy 
summits may be seen on one side the wilderness in which the 
people had wandered, and from the other the mountains of Pales¬ 
tine, on which, doubtless, Aaron cast his last look. 

The American traveller, Mr. Stephens, visited Mount Hor, 
and thus describes it: “ The mountain is bare and rugged to its 
very summit, without even a tree or a bush growing on its sterile 
sides.^^ He says, “ If I had never stood on the summit of Sinai, 
I should say, that nothing could exceed the desolation of the view 
from Mount Hor,—the mighty natural pyramid, on the top of 
which the high-priest of Israel was buried.'’^ 

Amid his other duties ordained by God, Aaron had, doubtless, 
not neglected that of copying the Law, and reading it to the peo¬ 
ple. This was especially ordered to be done for eight days toge¬ 
ther, once in every seven years; but we know that during th'' 



42 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


training of Israel in tlie wilderness, this was not all they heard 
or knew of the Law; for Moses says to them, (Dent. xxx. 11-14,) 

The commandment which is written in this book of the Law is 
not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, 
that thou shouldest say. Who shall go up for us to heaven, and 
bring it un.to us, that we may hear it and do it ? Neither is it 
beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say. Who shall go over the 
sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it ? 
But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy 
heart, that thou mayest do it.^^ 

“ In thy mouth’^ seems to signify, that they learned portions 
of it. Moses ordered the Levites to write his last noble song, 
and to teach it to the children of Israel ,—Put it in their mouths^ 
that this song may be a witness for me against the children of 
Israel, that when many evils and troubles are befallen them, this 
song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be 
forgotten out of the mouths of their seed.” Deut. xxxi. 19, 21. 
If an Israelite was in doubt as to any ordinance or duty, he was 
to inquire of the priest, the Levite, who was also the judge, and 
would show him the sentence of judgment, (Deut. xvii. 9,) as 
written by Moses. Any one of the people who was able might 
write a copy of the Law for himself; but the Levites were in 
general the learned class among this pastoral people, and were 
not only to make, but to give away, correct copies of it; and 
probably they went about from tent to tent, (as the Scripture- 
reader does now from house to house,) to read the Law to each 
family. It is always assumed that the people ‘^knew it;” and in 
the book of Deuteronomy, Moses threw its precepts into a new 
form, for the generation which had Seen born since the entrance 
to the wilderness. 

This book of Deuteronomy appears to have been written by 
Moses, in the plains of Moab, a short time before his death, 
1451 B. c. : his death itself, as recorded in the 34th chapter, was 
probably added by his successor, Joshua; and the last four verses 
of that chapter, which concern Joshua, were, it is most likely. 



FIERY SERPENTS. 


43 


written by Ezra, when be collected the books of the Old Testa¬ 
ment together. 

A little before the repeating of the Law, Moses had held up to 
the suffering people the serpent of brass upon a pole, that every 
one who was bitten, when he looked upon it, might live (Num. 
xxi. 9,)—the type, as John tells us, (John iii. 14, 16,) of the 
lifting up of the Son of man, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have eternal life.^^ That shore of the Eed 
Sea, where the Israelites were bitten, is still remarkable for 
abounding in serpents, as, indeed, the wilderness does generally. 
In Deut. viii. 15, Moses calls it a great and terrible wilderness, 
wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and droughtyet we 
never hear of the people being bitten and killed by them till now. 
They had been marvellously protected from this, as from other 
dangers of the way; and the protection was only now withdrawn, 
on account of their oft-repeated sin of murmuring. 

They had, however, nearly finished their course in the wilder¬ 
ness, and would not much longer murmur against their great 
leader, for he was about to ascend Mount Nebo, and to die ! He 
who had so long brought the word of the Lord to Israel, was to 
be seen by them no more; and he left them, saying, Secret 
things belong to God ) but those things which are revealed be¬ 
long unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the 
words of the Law.^^ Deut. xxix. 29. 

Yes! he left behind him the revealed and written will of God 
for that people, besides the wonderful book of Job. 

Do you think that the very roll that Moses left is come down 
to us?—^that would be impossible. That very roll is opposed to 
have perished at the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, 
B. c. 586; if so, it was treasured and in existence for eight cen¬ 
turies and a half. Moses commanded the Levitcs to put it in 
the side of the ark of the covenant, ^^for a witness against the 
people.^^ The final covenant made with the people in the plains 
of Moab, with the last lofty song and eloquent prophecy, seems 
to have been written on a separate skin; and Dr. Adam Clarke 
thinks there is every reason to believe that this was the portion 



44 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


lost and found in the reign of Josiali, 800 years after it was 
written. This was called an autograph copy^ which means the 
very one that Moses wrote. It had been lost in the reign of the 
wicked kings that went before Josiah, who was a reforming king; 
and when he set himself to repair the house of the Lord his 
God, and brought hewn-stone and timber to repair the floors 
which the kings of Judah had destroyed, Hilkiah the priest 
found a book of the Law of the Lord by the hand of Moses, and 
gave it to the king. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14. What he did with it, we 
must leave till a further period of the history, for we must go up 
with Moses into Mount Nebo, where he died. 

Having ordered the elders of Israel, on the day that they 
should pass over Jordan, to set up great stones, and plaster them 
with plaster, and themselves to write upon them all the words 
of the law, very plainly, (Heut. xxvii. 2,) he ascended the mount, 
the highest peak in the Abarim range, which joins the DeaM -Sea 
to Mount Seir. No traveller seems to have ascended or given 
any description of it, except that it is a barren mountain, on 
whose summit may be perceived a heap of stones overshadowed 
by a tall pistachio tree. 

He went up, as he had often done before, to be alone with 
God, but to return to men no more. If our Saviour himself had 
not told us, that the greatest man born of woman was his own 
forerunner, John the Baptist, we should have given this meed to 
Moses, who, denying his personal desire, died without any regret 
of his own—all his thoughts fixed, as they had ever been, on the 
welfare of his people. There was no thought of self—only let 
Jehovah, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the 
congregation, that they be not as sheep which have no shepherd’^ 
—and then he was ready. Farewell, then, to Moses ascending 
Mount Nebo—his eye not dim, nor his natural force abated, 
though he had borne the burden of 120 years. 

He had looked upon all Egypt’s glory. He had seen a nation 
fall before him in the wilderness; he had been made the means 
of giving God’s revelation to earth; and now he himself was 
about to pass into the fuller revelations of heaven. 



DEATH OF MOSES. 


45 


He was not sinless; lie was not to be worshipped; and lest he 
should have been^ (for never was human being so visibly endued 
with Divine power,) God marked his only recorded sin with 
punishment,—the great punishment of not entering the Promised 
Land; but that circumstance was employed as a type, that the 
Law, which he personified, cannot conduct us into the heavenly 
Canaan. Joshua, who took possession, is, as his name signifies, 
the type of Jesus, through whom only is obtained the ‘^abundant 
entrance,by grace, and not by works. 


CHAPTER III. 

Entrance to the Land—Joshua—The Canaanites—Joshua’s Victories—Ebal 
and Gerizim—The Judges—The Six Servitudes—The Times of the Kings—■ 
David—Solomon—Division of the Kingdom—Shishak—The Prophets, their 
Rolls—Table of Prophets—The lost Ten Tribes—The lost Roll, the burnt 
Roll—Captivity and Return—Ezra’s Ministry—Review of the History and 
Prophecies concerning the Eall of Israel, Nineveh, Judah, Tyre, Petra, 
Thebes, and Babylon. 

The historical books of Scripture, from Joshua to Esther, con¬ 
tain the history of the Jewish nation from their first settlement 
in the Promised Land to their return thither, after seventy years’ 
captivity in Babylon, comprising a period of about a thousand 
years. 

Why is it that this chapter in the Jubilee Book” must be 
mainly taken up with the history of this nation alone, while 
other great nations existed at that time in the world ? Will not 
Sinai and the wilderness have taught you to answer, Because 
through this nation, and none other, came down to us during 
this thousand years the written revelation from God ?” 

We shall divide this thousand years into three periods. I. The 
period of Jcighua and the Judges, of 355 years. II. The period 
of the Kings, comprising 507 years. III. The Babylonian cap¬ 
tivity and return, till Ezra republishes the Law and the Prophets, 
comprising 150 years. 




46 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


THE ENTRANCE TO THE LAND. 

You know tkat tkis was marked by the same miracle as their 
coming up out of Egypt. They might have proceeded toward 
the Promised Land without crossing the Red Sea at all; and 
they might have crossed the Jordan where it was a brook, near 
its source; but they were ordered to cross its full stream, and 
then its waters were heaped up, like those of the Red Sea, in 
order that the nations they were going to conquer might perceive 
their mission from Grod; and it is said, neither was there spirit 
in them any more, because of the children of Israel.^' 

The next event was the celebration of the passover—a new 
observance to most of the people, the generation who had been 
educated in the free, pure air of the wilderness, while their 
fathers were dying out for their unbelief. 

The passover had been observed only once in Egypt, and once 
again at Sinai, and this was its third celebration. 

On the next morning, the manna ceased to fall: the old 
corn’^ of the Promised Land supplied its place. 

To Joshua, the new leader of Israel and successor to Moses, 
God promised help, on these conditions : As I was with Moses, 
so I will be with thee; only observe to do according to all the 
Law which Moses my servant commanded thee. This book of 
the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth : thou shalt meditate 
therein day and night; then shalt thou make thy way pros¬ 
perous.^^ 

Each of these two great leaders of Israel was the guardian and 
student of the written revelation. Each read it to the people, 
and caused them to act upon it. Joshua lived thirty-two years 
after taking them into the land; and as he died at 110, he must 
have known for thirty-eight years what was the bondage of 
Egypt, and must have seen all, except Caleb, die around him 
in the wilderness : and he was now appointed as the conquering 
general of the people with whom God bad made a covenant to 
destroy every other league and covenant existing among the 



THE ENTRANCE TO THE LAND. 


47 


Canaanitish nations. Let us further examine who the Canaanites 
were. 

There was a race among these heathen people called the 
Anakim, or the Rephaim. The spies of Israel said they were a 
great and haughty people, with cities fenced up to the skies, 
(Deut. ix. 1, 2;) and that they made them feel as grasshop¬ 
pers.’^ 

The Anakim settlements lay along the mountain range which 
extends through the land of Palestine; and it seems that, from 
superior size and wisdom too, they were the masters of another 
race of people, called the Amorites—a degraded nation, and very 
wicked, and whose iniquity was full” at the time that Israel 
entered the land. 

The Rephaim had military outposts and fortresses in strong 
positions among the mountains. They had even a city, Kirjath- 
sepher, or the book-city, the city of letters, or of archives. 
Joshua conquered it, and probably did not think its records worth 
keeping, so they are all lost—not come down to us. We know 
nothing of these tall” and haughty” rulers of old time, but 
what is said of them in the Bible, and, strange to say, what is 
carved and written about them on the old Egyptian temple of 
Karnak. 

Yes I they are there—these men of Onk” or Anak. They 
are supposed to have been the shepherd-kings who once conquered 
Egypt; and in the reign of Rameses III., Egypt conquered them 
in their own land. She never records her .own defeats, but she 
has described her conquests over the Rephaim as ranging through 
three centuries. 

Even in the early days of these Rephaim, Shalem (the same 
as Jerusalem) was the metropolis of Palestine; whence came 
Melchizedek to meet Abraham after his defence of Lot, (see 
Gen. xiv.) As, therefore, Melchizedek is said to he the priest of 
the Most High God, it might be concluded that these sons of 
' Anak once held the true religion, like the ancient Arabians. 

In the time of Joshua, they still maintained their supremacy: 
hut it was then the supremacy of force. The Philistines were 



48 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


one of their branches, occupyiDg the southern sea-side of the 
land. 

Another of their ancient cities, named on Karnab, was Hebron, 
or Arba, where Abraham lived, died, and was buried. This city 

was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt/^ Num. xiii. 22.* 

The victories of Joshua comprise three distinct series of events. 
First, his campaign against the Amorite league, in which he 
swept round the mountain of Judah, returning by Hebron to 
Gilgal. Secondly, the campaign against the northern Canaanites 
—Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.^^ Josh, 
xi. 18. Finally, the general statements of particular expeditions 
against those tall Anakim, till destroyed in their cities and their 
forts—there were none of the Anakim left in all the land of 
the children of Israel,’^ only the Philistines in Gaza, Gath, and 
Ashdod; and then Joshua took the whole land and gave it for 
an inheritance unto Israel by their tribes. Josh. xi. 22. 
Balaam the son of Beor had been slain in this war, (Josh. xiii. 
22 :) you can read the history of Balaam looking down upon 
Israel from the mountains of Moab, and blessing them in spite 
of himself. Num. xxii. xxiii. xxiv. 

Although Moses had never seen the Promised Land, he bad 
chosen by inspiration the most fitting site for the fresh promulga¬ 
tion of the Law to the people, seven years after they passed the 
Jordan, on the blasted Ebal, and the fair and fertile Gerizim. 
The ark, attended by the priests, remained in the valley by which 
the twin mountains are separated. Up each side of either moun¬ 
tain stood the thousands of Israel, the chiefs, the judges, the 
Levites, the women, the children, and the stranger—six tribes 
pronouncing the curses from the barren Ebal—six uttering the 
blessings from the pleasant Gerizim; and as each clause of curse 
and blessing was pronounced, there rose, with one vast voice 
rushing from the living hills, the Amen’^ of the consenting 
multitude. Josh. viii. 33. 


^ This is one of the many notices of facts, in the history of the oldworl^ 
■which are to be met "with incidentally in the books of Moses. ^ 




THE JUDGES. 


49 


When Joshua went the way of all the earth^^—as he himself 
says—Israel was no more governed by one leader. He left the 
state on its proper and fixed foundations, with the Lord at its 
head as its Divine King abiding among them in his tabernacle, 
which had now been set up at Shiloh, twenty-five miles north of 
Jerusalem, and it continued in this city for 450 years. 


THE JUDGES. 

From the time of Joshua to that of Eli and Samuel comprises 
a period of 355 years, and this was called the times of the 
judges, or elders, of Isra^. This body had been in existence 
from the time the people were in bondage in Egypt, (see Exod. 
iii. 16.) Six were chosen from each tribe, making seventy-two 
senators; and on these fell the government of the chief cities and 
towns. In the wilderness, these elders had sometimes prophesied, 
(Num. xi. 25,) and they were the expounders of the Law of 
Moses. 

The book of Judges forms the eighth book of Holy Scripture, 
reckoning Job as so early written. Its chapters chiefly record 
the instances in which Israel forsook the Divine Law, and were 
in consequence punished. 

When, by marrying heathen wives, they were led into idolatry, 
the Lord withdrew his protection from them, and they were op¬ 
pressed by some neighbouring state, more or less severely, until 
they were humbled, and implored the mercy of their own offended 
King; and then he heard them, raising them up time after 
time deliverers, such as Ehud, Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, and 
Samson, when the foreign yoke was broken from their necks for 
a while, until, sinning again, they were again and again punished; 
but it was always for the forsaking of the Law of the Lord. 

The book of Judges, however, gives no minute records of the 
periods when they did not break the Law, and when the land 
enjoyed peace and safety: these periods are often passed over in 
a single verse. 

Dr. Graves, who has examined this subject, observes, that out 
6 



50 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


of the 450 years under the judges, there were not less than 377 
years during which the authority of the Law of Moses was ac¬ 
knowledged in Israel;—a beautiful picture of which times of 
peace is to he found in the book of Ruth. 

The Jewish writers tell us, that in these good times the Levites 
went much about the country as teachers of the Law. Education 
among the Hebrews chiefly consisted in being taught to read the 
Law, and listening to those who could expound it. 

The priests were to offer sacrifices for sin, and not to teach: 
the Levites were to assist the priests in some portions of their 
duty, but were to teach, and not to sacrifice. 

It appears that the Israelites endurfed six successive periods of 


servitude during the times of the judges: 

1st, under the King of Mesopotamia.8 years. 

2d, under the Moabites.18 years. 

3d, under the Canaanites.20 years. 

4th, under the Midianites.7 years. 

5th, under the Ammonites.18 years. 

6th, under the Philistines.40 years. 


During the twenty succeeding years, the people, though not under 
a foreign yoke, were, perhaps, under a worse bondage than any 
before—every man doing that which was right in his own 
eyes/* 

THE TIMES OF THE KINGS. 

After their last deliverance by the prophet Samuel, who ruled 
over the nation for twenty peaceful years, and ‘^caused them 
once more to serve the Lord only,^^ the chief men of the nation, 
not wishing Samuel’s sons to succeed him, who walked not in 
his ways,” demanded a king. 

Three kings in succession were given to them, who each 
reigned 40 years— 

Saul. David. Solomon. 

We have not space to enter into the details of their several 
reigns, but must remark, in passing, the portions which the two 









TIMES OP THE KINGS. 


51 


latter added to the books of Scripture. It is believed that the 
Prophet Samuel compiled the books of Judges and of Ruth, and 
commenced the first book of Samuel, the latter part of which and 
the second book were written by succeeding prophets, probably 
Nathan and Gad. 

The books of Kings and Chronicles were compiled from the 
national records by various prophets and scribes, and were, it is 
most likely, completed by Ezra, when he collected them together 
500 years afterward. 

King David wrote most of the Psalms, and King Solomon 
most of the Proverbs, with the books of the Song of Solomon and 
Ecclesiastes. 

Before Moses bade farewell to the people in the wilderness, 
he had foreseen that they would desire a king at some future 
day, and had thus provided that he should be an enlightened 
king. 

When he sat upon his throne, he was to write him a copy 
of the Law in a book, out of that which is before the priests, 
the Levites. He was to do this for himself, and he was to 
read in it all the days of his life. It would scarcely seem 
that Saul kept this law, but King David did; and, oh! how he 
loved it. 

Who does not cherish the memory of David the poet-king— 
the man after God’s own heart” ? Inspired alike as prophet 
and historian, he summed up the history of his wonderful people 
in many a noble psalm that has commanded the world's sympa¬ 
thies for 3000 years. Some of his songs were composed for the 
Jewish festivals, the passover, the feast of tabernacles, etc. Some 
are war-songs, some songs of thanksgiving. We can find an 
appropriate psalm for almost every possible state of mind and 
feeling; but, after all, what is there so beautiful as the longest 
psalm, the 119th —the Bible Psalm —in which every one of the 
176 verses speaks with love and joy of the word of God ! That 
is David’s contribution to this jubilee year; and, if he were living 
on the earth now, would he not chant it to his own harp most 
gloriously ? 



52 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORST. 


Have you noticed that every verse, under the different names 
of testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, ordinances, 
judgments, law, refers to thfe Bible?—and David’s Bible com¬ 
prised only the five books of Moses, Job, Joshua, Judges, and 
Buth, and the history of Israel by Samuel, to which, it may be, 
the king added some of his own psalms. 

There is no time to dwell on the reigns of David and Solomon, 
or to picture to ourselves the high and palmy state of Judea for 
those eighty years. The kings of Israel possessed great stores of 
the precious metals. When Solomon built the Temple, which was 
to stand in the stead of the Tabernacle, the gold consumed in over¬ 
laying its inside would have made three millions pounds sterling. 
This temple is supposed to have been built upon the very spot 
where Abraham had offered Isaac; and when Solomon and all his 
people were assembled for the first time to dedicate it to Jehovah, 
while the Levites in pure white robes lifted up their voices with 
the trumpets and the cymbals, then the house was filled with a 
cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of 
the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the House of the 
Lord. Thus was God visibly present among this favoured 
people. 


THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM. 

This took place under Behoboam, the son of Solomon, who at 
first reigned righteously, but afterward fell into idolatry, and Je¬ 
rusalem with him. Jerusalem was taken and spoiled by Shishak 
king of Egypt; and here again we must turn to the great old 
books of stone in the temple of Karnak, first reading 2 Chron. xii. 
and 1 Kings xiv. 25,—narratives which, though they would need 
no testimony from the heathen to their truth, are yet surprisingly 
confirmed by the following sculptures. 

You have the privilege to live in an age, when, if you hear 
persons expressing doubts as to the truth of the Bible, you may 
ask them if they have read or heard of God’s great stone hooksj 
which are unanswerable, and which he has laid up in their dead 



THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM. 


53 


languages for so many centuries, and is 
now permitting to be understood even by 
children. 

In the year 1828, the French student, 
Champollion, on his passage down the 
Nile, landed at Karnak, and pointed out 
the accompanying figure, one of sixty- 
three prisoners presented to Sheshonk by 
his god Amunra. 

The turreted oval enclosing the name 
means that it is a walled city. Shishak is 
depicted as a gigantic figure holding a 
captive by the hair of the head with one 
hand, which he is going to strike off with 
the other : there are five rows of such 
captives as these, with features evidently 
Jewish. 

JUDaH M E Le K Kah. 

Eunu of the Country of Judah. 

Our space forbids our even giving you a list of the names of 
the kings of the two kingdoms, which, from Rehoboam’s time, 
were set up among the Israelites, during the next hundred years 
after the conquest by Shishak, We must merely observe, that 
this national division proved a most disastrous event for them, and 
pass on to what chiefly concerns us,—to the class of persons who 
further added to the inspired books, for we must examine their 
character, and the nature of their teaching. 

THE PROPHETS. 

The prophets were messengers sent of God, and inspired to de¬ 
clare his will to this nation, who foretold events long before they 
came to pass. Fnoch, Noah, Jacob, and Moses, had. delivered 

6 * 










54 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


many prophecies. After the times of the judges, young men 
were especially trained as prophets, in schools; and from this class 
generally, but not always, did the Holy Spirit select those few 
who were to be miraculously inspired. These were also called 
seers, or men of God. 

This inspiration was a wonderful thing. The men to whom it 
was vouchsafed felt it come upon them as a power which they 
could not withstand. It took possession of them, filled them, ex¬ 
cited them, bore them along, taught them, enabled them to speak 
words which they could not have uttered at any other time. The 
Spirit of God/’ it is said, was upon them,” and their spirits felt 
like a vessel impelled before the wind. This was the inspiration 
vouchsafed to the higher class of prophets, as Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
and Ezekiel, and also to those who were called the minor prophets, 
because they uttered short though great prophecies. The scribes 
wrote all these latter together on one roll, lest any of them should 
be lost. 

But prophets, in general, during the times of the kings, were 
the philosophers, divines, and guides of the nation. They stood 
as the bulwarks of religion against the impiety of princes; and 
although highly esteemed by the pious kings, they were very poor 
men, and greatly exposed to persecution. 

They generally lived in some retired country place, and spent 
their time in prayer, study, and manual labour. Elisha quitted 
his plough when Elijah called him to be a prophet. Amos was 
a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. Amos vii. 14. 
The sons of the prophets built their own dwellings, for which they 
cut down the timber. 2 Kings vi. 1. 

They were dressed very singularly: Elijah was clothed with 
skins, and wore a leather girdle; Isaiah wore sackcloth. Their 
habits were simple and their food plain. 

The predictions of the earliest prophets are inserted in the his¬ 
torical books, together with their fulfilment,—such as those of 
Elijah, Elisha, Jehu, and Micaiah. 

But Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were directed to write their 
prophecies in a roll, as well as to utter them in some public place 



THE PROPHETS. 


55 


■where all might hear. The roll was in many cases affixed to the 
gate of the temple, where all might read it; and they often ac- 
companied their message by some significant action on their own 
part. Jeremiah made a yoke and put it on his neck, to foretell 
the captivity of Babylon. Isaiah walked barefoot, and stripped 
off his rough prophet’s garment, to show what was coming on 
Egypt. 



When the prophecy was not to be 
fulfilled for ages, they were com¬ 
manded to seal it up, it being re¬ 
quisite that the originals,” says Mr. 
Horne, should be compared with the 
[event when it occurred.” It seems 
to have been a custom for the pro¬ 
phets to deposit their writings in the 
Jemple, and lay them up before the 
Lord. There is a belief among the 
Jews that all the sacred books were 
placed in the side of the ark. We here give you a picture of 
the cases in which written rolls were generally kept in this age, 
and long after it. 

The Paragraph Bible published by the Tract Society will now 
supply us with a table (see page 56) of the reigns of the kings, 
in which the sixteen prophets who wrote the separate books of 
Holy Scripture lived and wrote. The thick black lines present 
at once to the eye the length of the prophet’s life. 

Before reading each prophecy, you should read the reign of 
the king in which it was delivered, given in the references at the 
bottom of the page. 

The idolatrous kings were always punished for the forsaking of 
the Law, while those who observed the Law prospered. The 
kingdom rose or fell according to that rule; and this renders the 
history of the Jewish people especially interesting and instructive. 

The following table shows you at a glance that the kingdom 
of Israel, comprising ten of the tribes, came to an end 194 years 
before the kingdom of Judah. The exceeding wickedness of 


















56 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY 


t 


TABULAR VIEW OF THE PROPHETS, 


SHOWINa THE PERIODS DURING WHICH IT IS SUPPOSED THEIR PROPHECIES 

WERE DELIVERED. 


KINGS OF 

JDDAH. 

B. C 

i 

< 

so 

n 

s 

i 

M 

(6 

W 

i 

M 

M 

N 

i 

< 

A 

H 

m 

o 

m 

w 

o 

so 

i 

•«1 

R 

< 

9 

n 

Q 

n 

■< 

K 

O 

R 

*< 

i 

p 

R 

R 

P 

R 

R 

R 

m 

R 

< 

< 

R 

& 

Haggai. 

H 

s 

R 

u 

H 

N 

i 

a 

' ''—1 

KINGS OF 

ISRAEL. 

a Amaziab, 839 


















oJeroboainII.825 

810 



















6 Uzziah, 810 

pfV) 






T 





















1 

T 













7P0 








I 











Interreguura, 784 

770 


















p Menahein,772 

760 



















q Pekabiah, 761 

c Jotham, 758 

750 




















r Pekah,759 

"d Ahaz, 742 

740 





















7pa 




















Anarchj, 739 

e Hezekiah. 727 

7on 




















« Hoshea, 730 

710 













T 








700 





















/Manassehf 698 

690 













1 







o 

8» 

►d 

680 


















Si 

670 


















o 

660 


4 




J_ 












s 


















1 

ff Amon, 643 

640 


















& 

so 

h Josiah, 641 

630 



















•s. 

Qt 

o 

B 

Cd D* 

• » 

P 5’ 

6*^0 




















i Jehoabaz, 610 

610 













I 























1.. 






6^ 
















4 






. 

1 Jeconiab, 599 















1 







tn Destruction of 
Jerusalem, 588 

560 











1 










1 f 

1 

670 




















pm 




















S. g- 

tH f 

g. tr 

pm 




















510 




















1 1 














































poo 



















510 














1 

r 



* Malachi, 
between 

436 and 420. 

















« 



The date after each king’s name indicates the commencement of his reign.—Joel Is placed twice as it is 

doubtful at which period he lived. 


a2Ki. U; 2 Ch. 25. 
b 2 Ki.U. 21; 2 Ch. 26.1. 
c 2 Ki. 15. 32; 2 Ch. 27. 
d2Ki.l6.1; 2Ch. 28. 
e 2 Ki. 18.19; 2 Ch. 29; Is. 36, 
/2 Ki.20.1; 2 Ch. 33. 


p2 Ki. 21. 19; 2 Ch. 33. 21. 
- A 2 Ki. 22. 1; 2 Ch. 34. 1. 
i 2 Ki. 23. 31. 

A2Ki.23. 36; 9Ch.36. 5. 

, 38. I 2 KI. 24. 8; 2 Ch. 36. 9. 
wi 2 Ki. 25; 2 Ch. 36.17. 


n Ezra 3, 4, 5. 
o 2 Ki.U. 28; 2 Ch. 13. 6. 
p 2 Ki. 15.14. 
q 2 Ki. 15. 22. 
r 2 Ki. 15. 25. 

«2Ki.l7.1. 









































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































THE LOST TEN TRIBES. 


57 


Israel caused God to send them into captivity among the Assy¬ 
rians, B. c. 730. 

They are spoken of as the lost ten tribes; and thus was Ho- 
sea’s prophecy fulfilled—they shall he called Lo-ammi, that is, 
not my people.^’ But it is certain that God knows where their 
descendants are, and in his own time will recover the lost, and 
reunite them with Judah, under one Head, even Christ, (see 
Ezek. xxxvii. 21-28.) 

The portion of Palestine inhabited by the ten tribes was called 
Samaria; the King of Assyria repeopled this district from 
Babylon, Cuth, Ava, etc., and these people, joined with the 
remnant of the Israelites, were called Samaritans. We hear of 
them in the time of our Lord, and that the Jews had no deal¬ 
ings with them.^^ They had asked to be allowed to assist in the 
rebuilding of the temple after the captivity, and, on being 
refused, became inveterate enemies to the work, and built a 
temple of their own upon Mount Gerizim. Jesus himself abode 
among this people for two days,^’ after conversing with the woman 
of Samaria; and many believed, because of his own word.^^ 
John iv. 40, 41. The persecution by the Emperor Justinian 
almost extinguished the community of Samaritan Jews; but yet, 
in the sixteenth century, a remnant of them was discovered in 
the neighbourhood of their holy mount, Gerizim, who still pos¬ 
sessed the Law in the Old Hebrew character, (for they never 
adopted the Chaldee,) and this manuscript is called the Samaritan 
Pentateuch. Learned men consider it a most valuable relic of 
antiquity. It had been lost sight of for 1000 years. It is now 
printed in the London Polyglot,^^ by Bishop Walton. 

These Samaritans exist to this day; they are very few in 
number; they assert their descent from the tribes of Ephraim 
and Manasseh, and say that their dialect is the true and original 
Hebrew in which the Law was given. 

The Jews do not acknowledge them, and contemptuously call 
them alien colonists’^; but, if so, it is very extraordinary that 
they possess this manuscript, which corresponds almost word for 
word with the Hebrew text. One of the copies may be seen in 



58 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


the British Museum. The missionary Fisk says, the Samari¬ 
tans have also copies of the books of Joshua and Judges, in separate 
volumes.^' 

Before we pass on to the time of Ezra, it is essential to the 
Story of the Book that we refer to two or more of the kings of 
Judah, one of whom, Josiah, found a part of the word of God ^ 
when it was lost, and another, Jehoiakim, dared to burn a part 
of it, in defiance of God and his prophet Jeremiah. 

The history of the lost roll may be found in 2 Kings xxii. and 
xxiii. Josiah and Cyrus are the only two persons in Scripture 
prophesied of hy namej long before their birth. You will find 
the prophecy concerning Josiah in 1 Kings xiii. 2, and its literal 
fulfilment in 2 Chron. xxxiv. 5. 

When he found the roll, he honoured it, and caused the people 
to stand to it,^^ as for thirteen years afterward they did. With 
J osiah ended the peace, the prosperity, and the piety of Judah; 
and the history of that kingdom closes with— 

THE BURNT BOLL, 

burnt in the reign of Jehoiakim, which lasted eleven evil years. 
He was the first person who dared to destroy any part of the 
written word of God, and he might therefore well be Judah^s 
last king. The reverence of the Jews in general for their Di¬ 
vine writings was so great, that if, in copying the manuscripts, 
they made a single error, they would reject the material thus 
spoiled, and have begun all again. They never permitted them¬ 
selves to retouch or erase; and in coming to the name Jehovah, 
the;y always wiped their pens and refilled them. When the 
manuscripts became at all old or injured, they reverently buried 
them in graves; and this is the reason why there are not in exist¬ 
ence any very old Hebrew manuscripts of the Scriptures—none 
earlier than a. d. 1200. 

Jehoiakim felt none of this reverence. He daringly sent his 
page, Jehudi, to fetch the roll of the prophecy which he heard Jere¬ 
miah had written against him, from the scribe’s chamber in the 
temple, and then he also told Jehudi to read it to him. .. 



THE CAPTIVITY AND RETURN. 


59 


Jehudi, however, had read but three or four columns, when 
the king, who sat in his winter-house, with a fire burning before 
him, snatching it from the reader, cut it with a penknife, and 
cast it into the fire.* Two or three of the princes around begged 
him not to burn it, but he would not hear them. He was then 
about to seize the writers, Jeremiah and Baruch, but, it is said, 

the Lord hid them.^^ 

For this crime it was decreed by God that Jehoiakim should 
have none to sit upon the throne of Judah, and that his dead 
body should be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night 
to the frost, which was literally fulfilled, as recorded by Josephus 
in the eighth chapter of his tenth book—the body of the king 
was thrown into the fields without the walls of the city;^^ his 
burial was as the burial of an ass, beyond the gates of Jerusa¬ 
lem and then all the wealth of the city, its princes, its mighty 
men, and many thousands of captives, were carried away into 
captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, for seventy years, to Babylon. 


THE CAPTIVITY AND RETURN. 

We know, from what is said of Daniel and Ezekiel, that, in 
the days of their exile, the people were not without their Scrip¬ 
tures. By the rivers of Babylon they sat down and wept; they 
wept when they remembered Zion. 

It has been the constant tradition of the Jewish Church, that 
Ezra, the great reformer, with the assistance of the members of 
the great synagogue, among whom were the prophets Haggai, 
Zechariah, and Malachi, collected as many copies as possible of 
the sacred writings, and from them set forth the canon of the 
Old Testament. Ezra^s own book, with those of Nehemiah and 
Malachi, was added 128 years afterward, by Simon the Just, who 
was the last of that synagogue. He died b. c. 292. 

On the return of the people from captivity, and after they had 


See Jer. xxxvi. 23. 




60 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


rebuilt their temple, they having forgotten the Law, it was re¬ 
delivered to them by Ezra, of whom the Jews, always speak as of 
a second Moses; and they say that he lived, like Moses, for 120 
years. 

This forgetting of the Law on the part of the people argues 
that the copies of it had been very scarce, and that it had not 
been publicly read to them all the while they were in Babylon; 
and yet, even there, Daniel, who wrote in kings’ courts, and 
Ezekiel, on the river Chebar, in solitude, at thirty miles’ distance 
from the city, had been inspired to add to the sacred writings two 
of the most wonderful of the prophetical books—bearing their 
own names. 

At the appointed time. King Cyrus, having conquered Babylon, 
and being made to see, by Daniel, the prophecies that God had 
uttered concerning him, in the days of Hezekiah, as the deliverer 
of the Jews, (Isa. xliv. 8,) issued an edict, permitting them to 
return to Jerusalem. 

You will find the history of their return in the books of Ezra 
and Nehemiah. 

Only the “remnant” of the nation returned; many, it seems, 
preferred staying in Babylon; vast numbers went to Egypt. A 
hundred thousand earnest men (perhaps scarcely so many, for 
Ezra speaks of the return only as “ giving us a nail in the holy 
place”) sought once more the land of their fath p’s. The journey 
occupied four months, and was accomplished in two bodies, or 
caravans. They still suffered great distress on their arrival, and 
did not for twenty years begin to rebuild their temple; and when 
it was completed, the elder Jews, who had seen the holy and 
beautiful house of Solomon, wept over this second temple in com¬ 
parison with it, for, alas ! in this temple four things were wanting. 
There was no ark, no sacred fire on the altar, no answer by Urim 
and Thummim, no Shekinah or cloud of glory between the 
cherubim. Still they rejoiced in the re-establishment of the 
passover and the temple service; and under Nehemiah the city 
walls were rebuilt on the old foundations. 

The republishing of the Law by Ezra did not take place till 



EZRA^S MINISTRY. 


61 


eighty years after the return of the first caravan of pilgrims from 
Babylon. We must try and realize the marked features of— 

EZRA’S MINISTRY. 

Upward of 50,000 of the people were assembled in Jerusalem, 
in the square of the water-gate, as many as were assembled in 
Trafalgar-square, in London, at the funeral of the late Duke of 
Wellington. 

A surging sea of human faces is always a grand sight. On 
the day that Ezra preached, and it was early in the morning of 
the Jewish Sabbath, 50,000 faces were upturned toward the pulpit 
of wood on which he stood, surrounded by thirteen more preachers 
on a platform or gallery, six on one side of him, and seven on the 
other. Thirteen other teachers seem to have been present on 
another platform, to read by turns, so that all the people might 
be addressed. 

When Ezra ascended the pulpit and opened the roll of the Law, 
the whole congregation stood up: then he offered prayer and 
praise to God, the people bowing their heads and worshipping, 
with their faces to the ground; and, at the close of the prayer, 
with uplifted hands they said, Amen.^^ 

Then, all still standing, Ezra, assisted sometimes by-the Le- 
vites, read the Law distinctly, gave the sense, and caused them 
to understand the reading,—a model of what preaching still 
should be. 

The Law, as delivered by Ezra, so aflfected the hearers, that 
they wept exceedingly, and about noon Ezra and Nehemiah 
thought fit to restrain it. From the great excitement they 
evinced, it would seem that the reading of their Scriptures, in 
the language they understood, (Chaldee,) was a new thing to 
them. In the temple service it had no doubt been read in the 
sacred language, (Hebrew.) 

On the second day the reading was resumed, they were again 
instructed in the Law, and they then appear to have arrived at 
the 31st chapter of Deuteronomy, when Moses commanded the 

6 



62 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


keeping of tlie feast of Tabernacles, which they immediately pre¬ 
pared to obey. They gathered, as of old, branches of palm-trees 
and willows of the brook, the pine, the myrtle, and the foliage 
of the mount of Olives to make booths, and there was very great 
gladness. 

Under the shadow of these booths, for the space of seven days, 
they remembered all the toils of the wilderness; and day by day 
Ezra read to them in the books of the Law of God: probably in 
all the books,—for the Old Testament was now complete, with 
the exception of the history of the current times. Doubtless the 
history of the nation was read; and they were made to review 
God’s dealings with them: very likely the Psalms were sung 
relating to the events which David and others had celebrated; 
and we cannot but believe that Ezra also pointed to the Prophets, 
and showed the people how minutely many of the words spoken 
by them had been fulfilled. 

They knew that the revelation was supported by the great 
pillars of miracle and prophecy; and at this era, the common 
people under Ezra’s teaching must have been taught to feel the 
strength of both. They stood in the midst of a circle of doomed 
countries, on all of which the threats of their sacred writings had 
been fulfilled, as well as most bitterly upon themselves. 

Nineveh, Tyre, Petra, Thebes, and Babylon,* as well as Jeru¬ 
salem, had all been desolated within a space of forty years, chiefly 
by Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean king, called by Jeremiah ^Ghe 
hammer of the whole earth.” Jer. 1. 23. Judgment had begun 
at the house of God, as it always does; and the divided kingdom 
of Israel had, as we have seen, fallen by the hand of the kings 
of Nineveh, 730 b. c. 

Hosea was the prophet who had especially foretold their 
troubles. If you look back to the table,f you will see that he 
lived during the reigns of several of the last wicked kings of 
Israel. The ten tribes were in his time frightfully corrupt: the 
kings were murderers; the very priests were idolaters. When 


* You should look for these on a map. 


t See page 56. 





NINEVEH. 


63 


you have read Hosea’s prophecy, you can refer to its fulfilment, 
in the 17th chapter of 2 Kings. Before the carrying away of 
the nation into Assyria, they had endured the deep miseries of a 
seven years’ famine, when a woman slew and boiled her own son 
for food, as Moses had foretold. Deut. xxviii. 53. 

The kingdom of Israel existed 254 years distinct from Judah, 
under nineteen kings, all of whom were wicked men,—the in¬ 
struments of its punishment. Assyria, whose capital was Nine¬ 
veh, was called by Isaiah ‘Hhe rod of God’s anger.” Isa. x. 5. 
Nineveh had long been an enemy to the Jewish nation. The 
kingdom of Assyria was as old as that of Egypt. Noah himself 
may have seen its rise. His grandson Asshiir went out of the 
land of Shinar, and builded Nineveh, (Gen. x. 11;) and for 1300 
years it had endured in power and gloiy, during all the periods 
of the Jewish history through which we have just passed. 

Ten or eleven years ago, we knew a little about Nineveh, the 
gods she worshipped, the kings who ruled over her, her wealth 
and her wickedness, and more especially that she once repented 
for a while at the preaching of a Jewish prophet, very rarely sent 
to a heathen city. We knew that the river Tigris flowed slug¬ 
gishly along through the waste plains where the city once stood 
with all its palaces, that nothing was to be seen but desolate 
mounds, where great feasts had been held by conquering kings 
for 120 days together, that the mighty walls with their 1500 
towers, and the vast multitude with their 120,000 little children, 
were all gone down into the grave of 3000 years. 

We had found much about Nineveh in the Jewish prophecies. 
Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Nahum had foretold her ruin; and Diodorus, 
a Greek historian, had told us of the funeral pile of its King 
Sardanapalus in his own palace, when, heaping his gold and 
silver, garments and jewels, himself and his wives, on a great pile 
of wood, (that he might not fall into the hands of his enemies,) 
he consumed himself, his treasures, and his palace. 

We, who believed the Bible, had no doubt of all this in our 
childhood; but we had no idea that in this part of the earth, also, 
God had laid up a great stone library for you of this generation 



C4 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


to read, and to be convinced that the Book and its volumes agree: 
for Nineveh has been disentombed since you were born. 

Over its ruins, the sands of the desert had heaped themselves 
for ages, in which the Arabs had built villages, and made graves 
for generation after generation; for had not God said to it, by 
Nahum, ^^Thou shalt be hid,^^ (Nah. iii. 11;) ‘‘I will cast 
abominable filth upon thee, and will make thee vile, and will set 
thee as a gazing-stock V’ Nah. iii. 6. 

In the year 1842, a learned Frenchman and a wandering 
English scholar, Mons. Botta and Mr. Layard, sought the seat of 
this once powerful empire, and searched till they found the dead 
city. They threw off its shroud of sand and ruin, and revealed 
to an astonished and curious world the temples, the palaces, and 
the idols of that Nineveh of Scripture, in which the captive 
tribes of Israel had laboured and wept,—the twin-sister of Baby¬ 
lon, who was like a cedar in Lebanon,’^ and who made all the 
nations to shake at the sound of its fall. We are now able to 
realize this fall, with something of the same minuteness with 
which Ezra could have depicted it to the Jews who had returned 
from the captivity; and we dwell longer on the ruin of this 
heathen power than any other, because, through its means, we 
can show you what were the idolatries after which the nation of 
Israel went, and which were the cause of their rejection and 
their ruin. 

If you visit London or Paris, you may look with your own eyes 
on the vast stony forms which have come up from their long and 
solemn sleep in the depths of the earth, such as those in the 
national museums. 

The eyes of the prophet Ezekiel may have looked upon those 
very sculptures. They were a kind of heathen cherubim. The 
Eastern nations had derived their idea of them from the traditions 
.concerning the cherubim at the gate of Eden, uniting in one the 
noblest forms of their kind—the lion among wild beasts, the bull 
among tame ones, the eagle among the birds, and man as the 
lord of all. 

Every day, as Mr. Layard broke further into the earth, he 



NINEVEH. 


65 



Winged Bull. 


found fresh wonders, which he has forwarded to the Museum; 
and he has written two very interesting books to explain them. 
He found that these colossal forms were placed at the entrance of 
the palace-temple, whose steps came down to the river’s brink; 
that every room in the palaces had been coated with slabs, on 
which were carved histories, not in words, but in figures standing 
out from the stone, called bas-reliefs; and though some of these 
crumbled to powder as they were being dug out, because they 
had been calcined with fire, according to the prophecy of Nahum, 
—^Hhen shall the fire devour thee,”—still a great many slabs 
have been sent home to the Museum, where a beautiful hall has 
been prepared to receive them; and now we can walk among its 
long, light galleries, and read the story of Nineveh all in stone, 
dug up by the Arabs of the desert. 

There is some curious writing upon those vast bulls, all in 
arrow-headed character, and you cannot read it. Several learned 
men, however, have begun to do so; and Mr. Layard tells us, 
that they have deciphered a complete history of the reign and 
character of Sennacherib, allusion to whom is made in the Bible, 
at 2 Kings xviii. 13. There is an awful strangeness in being 
thus, as it were, brought face to face with the solemn antiquities 
of the Bible, and with our own earliest sacred recollections. 




















66 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 



Arrow-headed Character. 


y»f«<,!, 5giT«I« 

►fT Rff Bf sW: va 
fgi >eT <Si «n 


[Translation.] 


Sennacherib, the mighty king, king of the country of Assyria, sitting on 
the throne of judgment, before (or at the entrance of) the city of Lachish, 
(Lachisha,) I give permission for its slaughter.” 


The Obelisk. 

A certain old obelisk, found also at Nineveb, is now in the 
British Museum: upon it are recorded, according to Major Kaw- 







JERUSALEM. 


67 


linson, the names of Jehu and Hazael, both known to you in 
Scripture. 

Many other names of kings, idols, 
countries, and cities, mentioned in 
the Old Testament, occur in the 
Assyrian tablets, on which also are 
depicted continually images of the 
god Nisroch, the god of Sardanapa- 
lus, the hawk-headed deity. And 
when the Jews had had read to 
them the Prophet Nahum, when it 
was read in Hebrew and translated 
into Chaldee, they well knew how 
the prophet’s words had been ful¬ 
filled. The cormorant and the bit¬ 
tern lodged in the upper lintels of 
the palaces of that rejoicing city, 
that had said in her heart, I am, 
and there is none beside me;” God 
had uncovered the cedar-work. Zeph. ii. 14, 15. As we hope 
you will take time to refer to the chief prophecies which concern 
Assyria and Nineveh, we have given you a list of them: 

Isa. X. 15-19; xxxi. 8. The Book of Nahum. 

Ezek. xxxi, 3-17. Zeph. ii. 13-15. 

The city of Nineveh had fallen 611 B. c., nearly 200 years before 
Ezra’s republication of the Scriptures. It was 600 miles from 
Jerusalem. 



JERUSALEM. 

Having looked on the destruction of Nineveh, the sorrowful 
gaze of Judah must again have been turned wpon herself ,—for 
she was the next who fell under the power of Nebuchadnezzar. 
Her idolatry had provoked the God of her fathers to jealousy, 
till he would bear with her no more. 

She had worshipped, after the manner of Egypt, creeping 







68 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


things and abominable beasts (Ezek. viii.) even close to tbe 
sanctuary of God, therefore be at last bad dealt with her in fury; 
and Ezekiel (x. 8), bad seen him depart from off tbe threshold 
of tbe bouse on tbe cherubim’s wings, scattering coals of fire” 
over tbe devoted city, as be went to return no more in glory in 
that dispensation. 

It was for her IDOLATRY that Judah lost her land. She 
rejected God and bis word; and since tbe days of Jeboiakim, has 
never possessed her Jcingdom, but as tbe servant of some foreign 
power. She held it under tbe Babylonians, tbe Persians, the 
Grecians, and tbe Romans,—Daniel’s ^^four beasts;” and now 
under tbe Roman power in its papal form, (the so-called “ holy 
shrines” being scattered over all her mountains,) Jerusalem still 
abides till tbe times be fulfilled, when, returning first to that 
Moses and the prophets (Mai. iv. 4) whom Jeboiakim cast aside, 
she shall forswear tbe vain traditions with which she has overlaid 
tbe Law, and go up once more to build tbe old wastes, and repair 
tbe desolations of many generations; and there, at Jerusalemj 
tbe spirit of grace and supplication being poured upon her,” as 
Zecbariab tells us, at chapter xii. 10, she shall look upon him 
whom she bath pierced, and mourn;” and all nations shall call 
her blessed in her delightsome land.” Mai. iii. 12. Tbe pro¬ 
phecies foretelling tbe siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar 
will be found in— 

Isa. iii. Jer. xxv. 9-12; xxvii. Ezek. xii. 

TYRE. 

We must now pass for a moment to Tyre, tbe city on tbe rock, 
overlooking tbe sea,—tbe noble colony of tbe sons of Anak, re¬ 
posing beneath tbe shadow of Mount Lebanon. Four years after 
Nebuchadnezzar bad been used to chastise tbe Jews, be was em¬ 
ployed in punishing tbe sins of Tyre. 

Tyre, tbe merchant-city, was to tbe old world what London now 
is to tbe new. Her glory is described in tbe 27tb chapter of 
Ezekiel: her fall is prophesied in tbe 28tb. Of Nebuchadnezzar’s 



TYRE—PETRA. 


69 


army, during the siege, it is said, that by the toils of thirteen 
years before its walls, every head was made bald, and every 
shoulder was peeled,—a result arising from wearing their armour 
so long, and carrying burdens to build the high terraces from 
which they made their attack. Seldom has the deep gathered 
such a harvest to its treasures as when Tyre fell in the midst of 
its waters. Its ruined pillars of red and white marble lie scattered 
along the shore. Perhaps some day, another Mr. Layard may 
bring to light the ancient Tyre. Por the prophecies of the destruc¬ 
tion of Tyre see— 

Isa. xxiii. Ezek. xxvi. j xxvii.; xxviii. 

Tyre yielded to Nebuchadnezzar b. c. 571, nineteen years after 
the prophecies against it. Like all the heathen cities, Tyre was 
wicked and proud. She had said, I am perfect in beauty,^^ and 
her heart was lifted up because of her beauty. There is a small 
book published by The London Tract Society,^' entitled. Tyre; 
its Rise, Glory, and Desolation,^^ which contains a rich store of 
information, especially designed for young persons, and to which 
we must refer them. 

PETRA. 

This city is the Bozrah of the Bible, and was the southern 
capital of Edom. 

When Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, the Edomites were 
almost as numerous as the Jews. Moses tells us (Gen. xxxvi. 1) 
that Esau is Edom. Esau had hated Jacob, and their children 
were always at enmity. The Edomites had united with Nebu¬ 
chadnezzar to besiege Jerusalem, and urged him to raze it even 
with the ground. Psalm cxxxvii. 7. The prophecies against 
Edom are very many, and are a continuation of God’s wrath upon 
Amalek, which became the ascendant race and general name for 
all the children of Esau.* These prophecies are distinct from 
those against Ishmael, whose children are spoken of as the tribes 
of Kedar and Nebaioth. On Esau, or Edom, the judgments pro- 


* Forster’s “ Geography of Arabia.’ 




70 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


nounced are by far the most severe, and on his city, Petra, they 
wore chiefly poured. Spoiler after spoiler ruined it. The people 
worshipped the sun and moon, and made their houses, palaces, 
and temples in the rocks and sides of the mountains which sur¬ 
round the valley in which Petra is situated. This wondrous city, 
with its rock-hewn pillars and statues of exquisite beauty, once the 
halting-place and mart of all the caravans of the wilderness, fell 
under the dominion of Jews, Greeks, Romans, and Arabs, till it 
became what it now is,—an utter desolation,^^ none passing 
through it for ever.^^ For 1200 years its very existence was un¬ 
known : it is approached only through a narrow defile of rocks, 
two miles in length, through which but two horsemen can ride 
abreast, under festoons of climbing plants and trees. At the end 
of the defile, Petra, the dead city, bursts upon you, silent and 
beautiful in its desert tomb. For the prophecies against Edom 
see— 

Jer. xxvii. 3-11; xlix. 7-22. Joel iii. 19. 

Ezek. XXV. 12-14; xxxii. 29. Obad. ver. 1, 8, 9. 

And that all these things were fulfilled before the time of Malachi, 
we know from Mai. i. 2, 3. 


EGYPT. 

In reflecting on the words of their prophets, the Israelites would 
also turn to Egypt. This ancient kingdom, also, was intensely 
proud. Her king. Pharaoh Hophra, says Herodotus, had boasted 
that it was not even in the power of God to dethrone him”] and 
Ezekiel compared him to a great dragon lying in the midst of his 
streams, and saying, My river is mine own, and I have made it 
for myself.’^ Ezek. xxix. 3. Nebuchadnezzar caused him to be 
strangled in his own place. He made dreadful havoc in the do¬ 
minions of the Pharaohs. God had put the sword into his hand, 
and he was to break the images, and burn with fire the houses of 
the gods, while the Jews, who had gone down to Egypt, and 
wickedly determined to burn incense to the queen of heaven, 
were to be consumed in these judgments, till there was an end of 



EGYPT—BAEYLON. 


71 


them. Jer. xliv. 12. From that hour Egypt has been the basest 
of the kingdoms, and Israel has leaned upon it as a staff no more.. 
The prophecies against it are found in— 

Isa. xix; xxx. 1-7. Ezek. xxix. and xxx. 

Jer. xlvi. Ezek. xxxi. 1-18; xxxii. 

Joel iii. 19. 

And for their fulfilment, besides the destruction caused by Nebu¬ 
chadnezzar, you must likewise refer to the times when the Persian 
war-cry rang through the crowded streets of Thebes, when Cam- 
byses laid his destroying hand on Karnak and its sculptures, and 
when Alexander the Great completed the ruin his predecessors 
had begun. 


BABYLON. 

Once more the eye of the chosen people would turn to the fall 
of the all-conquering Babylon itself. You have heard of its brazen 
gates and its 676 squares, its walls and its hanging gardens, where 
Nebuchadnezzar said, Is not this great Babylon which I have 
built You remember the hand that wrote in fire on the walls 
of Belshazzar’s palace; and having referred to the prophecies of 
the fall of this mighty empire in— 

Isa. xiii.; xxi. 9; xlviii. 14-20; Jer. 1. and li.; 

—^you will be prepared to read the sublime narration of Daniel, 
the eye-witness of all its horrors, in the fifth chapter of his own 
book. 

How deeply the lesson of all these vast fulfilments of the word 
of God was impressed upon the minds of the returned remnant 
of Judah, we may judge from the fact, which all history confirms, 
that they ever afterward felt a profound dread and aversion for 
all the pagan idolatries. 

Ezra did much to cut off this evil at its root, by causing them 
to put away at once their heathen wives. This was a severe and 
terrible measure, and it grieved J^im deeply to enforce it, (see 
Ezra ix. 10;) but he felt it was essential to their future existence 
as a nation. 



72 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


While Nehemiah was governor of Judea, the Jewess Esther 
was raised to the Persian throne; and with her beautiful history, 
the records of the ancient world, as given to us in the Bible, 
are ended. 


CHAPTEE lY. 

The Jewish Bible complete—The Apocrypha—The Septuagint—Daniel’s two 
Pictures—Antiochus Epiphanes—The Maccabees—Judas Maccabeus—The 
Roman Power—Pompey—Caesar—The Druids—Their Hebrew Origih— 
Serpent-worship—Druidical Remains—Greek Philosophers—Herod—The 
Temple—The Synagogues—Traditions of the Pharisees—Targums—Phari¬ 
sees and Sadducees—The faithful Few—The Rabbins—John the Baptist— 
His Ministry—Our Lord’s Advent—His Mission—Books of the New Tes¬ 
tament—The First Century—Its Apostles and Elders—The Last Supper— 
Violent Death of all who partook of it, except John—First and second Pagan 
Persecutions—Destruction of Jerusalem,. 


We wish to take you in this chapter through the Story of the 
Book for a period of 500 years, comprising the last four centuries 
of the Old Testament dispensation, and the first century of the 
New. 

The Hebrew people must still be regarded in one light, for the 
four centuries before the coming of the Lord, as the keepers of 
the word of God. They alone had received it, and they pre¬ 
served it through this middle space of time between Malachi, the 
last of their prophets, and the cry of John the Baptist in the 
wilderness of Judea, whose coming, as the forerunner of the Lord, 
Malachi’s last words had foretold. See Mai. iv. 5, and Matt. iii. 1,2. 

The Bible of the Jews was complete. It is called the Canon 
of the Old Testament.^^ The word canon means a rule, a settled 
law ) and, as you may have heard of some books not in this canon, 
which are generally called the Apocrypha, and which may be 
found in a few old Bibles bound up between the Old and New 
Testaments, we must give you a short history of them. 

They were not inspired books : some were written by learned 
Jews at Alexandria, after the prophetic spirit had ceased with 




Daniel’s two pictures. 


73 


Malachi. Not even their writers say they are inspired: they 
were written in Greek, and not in Hebrew, the ancient sacred 
language. They were never received as sacred by the ancient 
Jewish Church, and not a single passage in them is ever quoted 
by Jesus Christ, or by his apostles. 

A few of these books are considered valuable as a connecting 
link in history, but a child may perceive the difference between 
them and the Holy Scriptures. 

These apocryphal or doubtful books were not added to the 
Hebrew copies of the Scriptures, but only to the Septuagint,” 
or Greek version, made at Alexandria, B. c. 277, by a council of 
seventy learned men, for the use of the Jews in Egypt, who were 
accustomed to speak Greek. 

Alexandria was then a chief colony of the Jews; it is said that 
a hundred thousand of them resided there. It was at that time 
one of the greatest cities in the world. 

Learned men consider this translation, called the Septuagint, 
very valuable. The evangelists and the apostles quoted from 
it as much as from the Hebrew. 

During the Babylonian captivity, the Prophet Daniel was in¬ 
spired to give to the world two pictures of the further events that 
would occur in the 400 years which were to introduce the king¬ 
dom of the Messiah. 

The figures which compose his first picture had previously been 
presented in a dream to the mind of Nebuchadnezzar himself; 
and Daniel was called upon to declare what the king had seen, 
and to explain its meaning. 

Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream an image with a head 
of gold, its breast of silver, its middle of brass, and its legs of 
iron, the feet partly iron and partly clay, and he had seen a stone 
cut out without hands smiting this image on its feet, and break¬ 
ing the whole fabric to pieces. 

This dream Daniel thus explained. He told Nebuchadnezzar 
that ho, the King of Babylon, was himself the head of gold; 
that after his kingdom should come three other kingdoms, each 
less glorious than his; anci^that all four should be destroyed by 

7 



74 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


a greater kingdom than any of them—the kingdom of the God 
of heaven, which should last for ever. You must read the dream 
and its interpretation in the second and third chapters of the hook 
of Daniel. 

The prophet’s second picture is contained in his seventh chap¬ 
ter ; and it is a picture of the same four great empires, hut now 
represented under the form of four great heasts, who were also to 
succeed one another in dominion. 

Further visions in the eighth chapter informed Daniel, that the 
second kingdom was that of the Medes and Persians, the third 
that of the Grecians; the fourth empire is not named, hut it is 
fully described, and events proved it to he the mighty power of 
Dome. 

All ancient history confirms the truth of this magnificent pro¬ 
phecy. The Babylonian empire passed away, as we have seen, at 
the taking of Babylon by Cyi’us: the Persian empire fell when 
Darius was conquered, B. C. 330, by Alexander, who is the 
leopard of the picture, with four heads; while the Grecian ceded 
to the Roman power about 150 years before Christ, which then 
began to eclipse all others; and having conquered Carthage, soon 
became the sovereign of the world. 

It principally concerns us to know what become of the Jews 
during this period. Among themselves, the high-priests had the 
chief power. The sixth in succession from the time of their 
governor Nehemiah, was Simon the Justj his most important 
work (according to tradition) was the final arrangement of the 
books of the Old Testament. He added to Ezra’s collection the 
books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Malachi; and thus, as we 
have- said, completed the canon. - 

About this time, from the intercourse of the Jews with the 
Greeks, and in imitation of their schools of wisdom, sprung up 
two sets of learned doctors in Jerusalem, called the Pharisees and 
the Sadducees. 

At this period also arose their very great enemy, Antiochus 
Epiphanes. The Jews to this day have never forgotten his cruel¬ 
ties. He was truly a vile person j” and the accounts of heathen 



JUDAS MACCABEUS. 


75 


historians seem to prove that he answers to Daniel’s description 
of the King of the North, (Dan. xi. 21 :) by the North, is in¬ 
tended Syria, which was north of Palestine. 

Antiochus caused a general massacre in Jerusalem, which 
lasted three days: 40,000 Jews were killed, and as many made 
slaves. He then entered the temple to carry off its gold and 
silver, and caused swine to be sacrificed upon its altar. 

Shortly afterward, he attacked the city on the Sabbath, when 
the Jews were forbidden to fight; slew many, and sold more; 
shed blood within and without the temple; and, building a 
strong fortress on Mount Zion, caused such multitudes to flee, 
that the city was like a desert; the daily sacrifices were discon¬ 
tinued, B. C. 168 ; the temple dedicated to Jupiter, an idol placed 
therein, and only those J ews favoured who worshipped it through 
fear of death. 

Yet even at this time many were found faithful. They would 
not forget their Law, and change its ordinances. 

Then the wicked king rent in pieces the books of the Law 
which he found, and burnt them with fire; and whoever pos¬ 
sessed copies of these books, or consented to the Law, it was 
ordained that they should die; wherefore they chose rather to 
die, that they might not profane the holy covenant.” 

So, then, they died.” They led the way in the long roll of 
names of the martyrs for the Book. Among these, the most 
distinguished were seven brethren, and their mother, under the 
Maccabees, who, refusing to disobey the Law of Moses, underwent 
every possible torment, and were at last fried alive, in a brazen 
pan made red-hot, one after the other—being supported of God, 
and each singing the words of Moses’s Song, (Deut. xxxii. 36-43,) 
exhorting one another to die for the truth’s sake. The mother 
entreated each spn to be faithful unto death, and last of all she, 
like them, was tortured, and died also. 

In the midst of these troubles, God raised up for his people a 
deliverer as in old time, Judas Maccabeus, who trusted in the 
Lord, and in his name defeated the Syrian armies: then he 
cleansed the temple, and built a new altar in the place of that 



76 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


wMcli was defiled: all the services and sacrifices were renewed 
three years and a half after they had been discontinued. 

Antiochus soon after this died in dreadful bodily torments, 
with all the terrors of a guilty conscience; but the Syrians still 
continued to make war on Judea, and Judas continued to over¬ 
come them through prayer, God being with him as in the days 
of Israel of old. 

It was not in times of trouble that his faith failed. He be¬ 
came very rich, and a prince among the people. After many 
fresh victories, he grew weary of the further incursions of his 
enemies; and this chief of the Maccabees sent to Rome, and 
sought for help from those who were ignorant of the living God. 

Ere the messenger of Judas returned to bring a promise of 
help from the Roman Senate, he who had sought for other help 
than God’s was slain, b. c. 161. The failure in faith of this 
man of God was like that of Jehoshaphat of old; and by the step 
he took he hastened the ruin of his people. His death was 
bitterly lamented throughout Judea, as that of the greatest de¬ 
liverer who had appeared since the days of David. 

We must pass over the successors of Judas Maccabeus: his 
nephews were wild and wicked men,—murderous high-priests, 
who assumed also the royal diadem: one of them, named Jan- 
nacus, was a monster of cruelty, having the word of God for a 
light, and despising its guidance. The sin of rejecting even the 
Mosaic Law was far greater than any that the heathen nations 
could commit; and while such was the character of the hio-h- 
priests, God might well desert the Jewish nation as a nation, as 
he did from this time forward. 

The Jewish history henceforth is closely connected with that 
of the Roman empire. 

Pompey, the general of the Roman armies, took advantage of 
the constant quarrels the Jews had among themselves, to add 
Judea to his conquests; and thus the fourth of the Gentile beasts 
of Daniel began to tread down the holy city. 

He took the temple by storm; and the Pharisees, who were 
always fighting against the Sadducees, earnestly helped him. The 



POMPEY—C^SAR. 


77 


priests engaged in the daily services were slain where they stood. 
Pompey entered the holiest place: he saw no visible glory, for it 
had long departed, (Ezek. x 3 ) but he was astonished at finding 
no image or statue of the Deity. However, he showed his re¬ 
spect for the place by touching none of its treasures; and he 
ordered it to be cleansed, and its services renewed. 

He then returned to Home, entering it in his triumphal, glit¬ 
tering chariot, to which were yoked all the kings he had con¬ 
quered; among them, Aristobulus of Judea, and his sons. He 
had overcome in that campaign fifteen kingdoms, taken 800 cities, 
and caused 1000 castles to acknowledge his empire; and he 
brought back treasure to the amount of five millions of our money. 
Yet he was only a single general of Rome’s armies. 

Was not that fourth heast ‘^exceeding dreadful,” (Dan. vii. 19,) 
with his ^Heeth of iron and his nails of brass, devouring, break¬ 
ing in pieces, and stamping the residue with his feet” ? 

It is as trampled beneath these feet^ Britain is first brought into 
conjunction with Judea. 

While Pompey triumphed in the East, Caesar went forth and 
conquered the West. The people of the Swiss valleys were first 
subdued, then 80,000 Germans fell before him: the Belgae were 
defeated with such slaughter, that marshes and deep rivers were 
rendered impassable by heaps of dead bodies: then he subdued 
the Gauls, and only looked with the unsatisfied eye of a ravenous 
eagle (the standard of the Roman empire was an eagle) to the 
white cliffs of Albion, as he stood upon the shore of France. 

He sailed from Calais, B. C. 55, and landed where the town of 
Deal now stands. 

The Britons were even then fierce enough to frighten the 
Romans; but they could not withstand men clad in armour. 
We need not give you the early history of Britain, for all school 
children are supposed to know it; but we must touch upon the 
ancient religion, such as it was, which prevailed among the 
Britons before the coming of the Lord. 

It was very ancient: its priests were called Druids, as were 
the priests of the Celtic nations in general. 

7« 



78 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


The Celtic nations descended from Japheth, who peopled Eu¬ 
rope, and on whom that blessing was pronounced by his father 
Noah, ^^Grod shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the 
tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.^ ^ This promise 
had not been fulfilled in the times we have hitherto considered. 
We have led you to the ancient East, but now we shall return to 
look upon ourselves—the children of the West. 

The religion of the Druids was as old as that of the Magi of 
Persia, the Brahmins of India, and the Chaldees of Babylon and 
Nineveh. 

The corruptions of each, like those of Egypt, arose at first out 
of the pure religion of Noah; and you will find that the simple 
primitive customs of the patriarchs of the Bible sujffered the least 
change among the Druids of Britain. 

When Caesar landed on the British shores, he did not plant 
his silver Boman eagles in the highlands and islands of Scot¬ 
land. Far out of the every-day world, in the Western Hebrides, 
side by side with Stafifa, the cathedral of the sea, in the great 
bay of Loch-na-keal, there lay then, as there lies now, the island 
of Iona, whose oldest name was the ^Hsle of the Druids.^' 

Here, in times of which we have no written record, were car¬ 
ried on many of the simple religious customs of the old Hebrews: 
and when Nineveh had carved her vast stone cherubim, and 
bowed down before her eagle-headed Nisroch, and while Egypt 
worshipped her Isis and her Apis, in Iona was reared no temple 
and no image; but the altar of turf or stone, and the ofiTering 
from the increase of the fold or field, testified to the one God, 
whom Noah served in the same manner when he came out of the 
ark. Afterward Satan, the god of this world, corrupted this 
simple faith into the earliest of idolatries, and the worship of the 
sun became the religion of the Druids. There soon followed, as 
among all other heathen nations, the worship of the serpent. 
The serpent’s egg was the Druid’s crest, and the actual serpent 
lay entwined at the foot of their altars. One of their most re¬ 
markable remains is at Avebury, in Wiltshire, where 461 stones 
once composed the figure of a serpent extending for two and a 



THE DRUIDS. 


79 


half miles over the green hills, and serving as approaches to 
circles within a circle. The head and tail of the snake are still 
obvious.* 

It is one of the most remarkable triumphs of that ^^old ser¬ 
pent the devil/^ that he has succeeded in persuading fallen man, 
in every country, and in every age, without exception, to adore 
that reptile form in which he destroyed the happiness of our first 
parents. 

In the temple of Belus at Babylon, were worshipped large 
serpents of silver. In Persia, serpents were considered the 
governors of the universe. The serpent Calya was worshipped 
in Hindostan, as was the serpent Python at Delphos. Under the 
form of the dragon, the serpent has to this day governed China 
and Japan; while the serpent-worship of Syria and Egypt is 
shown by all the ancient history of those countries. It entered 
largely into the mythology of Greece and Rome; and in order to 
separate God’s people from this universal serpent-worship, Heze- 
kiah, when he broke the images, and cut down the groves, also 
broke in pieces even that precious relic, the brazen serpent that 
Moses had lifted up in the wilderness, calling it Nehushtan, or 
only a piece of brass, for the children of Israel had burnt incense 
to it. 2 Kings xviii. 4. 

But to return to the Druids. The proof that their religion 
in its origin waa patriarchal, we shall show you among trees and 
stones. 

The oak tree has at one time or other been held in especial 
reverence by all nations. The same word in Hebrew denotes an 
oah and an oath; and a stone placed under an oak was among 
the Hebrews a monument of a Divine covenant. 

When Joshua had written the words of the covenant in the 
Book of the Law of God, he took a great stone and set it up 
under an oak at Shechem, and said to the people, This stone 
shall be a witness, for it hath heard all the words of the Lord.^ 
Josh. xxiv. 2^27. On this very stone, Abimelech was after- 


See Stakeley’s “ Abury.” 




80 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


ward made king. Judg. ix. 6. In earlier days, after Jacob’s 
beautiful ladder-dream, he took the stone which had been his 
pillow, and set it up at Bethel, in memorial of the place which 
had been to him the gate of heaven. Glen, xxviii. 18. 

Sometimes stones were raised to mark the spot of a victory, 
as at Mizpeh, (1 Sam. vii. 12;) sometimes over the grave of a 
dead ftiend, as upon Rachel’s grave. Gen. iii. 20. The erect 
gravestones in our burial-grounds are memorials of this custom; 
and in 1 Sam. vi. 15-18, we read of a stone rendered memora¬ 
ble by the ark of God being placed upon it, when returned from 
the Philistines, and taken out of the cart by the Levites, which 
stone had before been well known as the great stone of Abel.” 

The most striking example of a circle of memorial-stones being 
set up, in Scripture, is by Joshua at Gilgal, which word means 
circle. These stones were taken up out of the bed of the river, 
and pitched in Gilgal. At this place Samuel the prophet after¬ 
ward held his courts of judgments from year to year; and an 
altar must have been erected here, for at Gilgal was consecrated 
Saul, the first of Israel’s kings; and here also Agag was hewed 
in pieces before the Lord.” Gilgal appears to have been the 
customary residence of the Prophet Elisha. 

Those stones told wondrous histories throughout the old He¬ 
brew times; and by no people were these customs so distinctly 
preserved as by the Druids. They, like Israel, worshipped in 
groves, at first very naturally seeking intercourse with God under 
the shadow of ancient woods, and set up memorial-stones gene¬ 
rally under oaks, which to them were especially sacred; then, 
like Israel, and without their written revelation, polluting them 
by idol-worship, some have said by human sacrifices. There is, 
however, considerable historical evidence, that the men killed on 
these stone altars, with one stroke of the sword, were those who, 
in later ages, would have forfeited their lives, as criminals, on 
the scaffold. From the posture in which the victim fell, the 
Druids decided their auguries or divinations. • 

The circles of stone, called Druidical, are still numerous in 
Britain, on lofty hills and elevated plains; the most magnificent 



THE DRUIDS. 


81 


is that of Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain. These circles are also 
found in Normandy. They were the temples for worship of our 
forefathers, open to the sky; the priests stood within the circle, 
the people without,—a dim shadow of Moses and the elders on 
Mount Sinai and the people fenced off around its base,—also of 
the Tabernacle and its inner and outer courts. 

The Druids resorted, like Israel, to their place of stones, at all 
times of important consultation, and sat in their consecrated 
circles to judge and give laws. In Iceland, these were called 
doom-rings. Sometimes the old stones witnessed the choice of 
kings amid the songs of the bards. In the very dress of the 
arch-Druid, there is something that reminds us of that of the 
high-priest—his rod, in imitation of that of Moses, his robes of 
pure white fastened by a girdle on which appeared the crystal of 
augury, encased in gold: as this jewel sparkled or grew dim, 
the person appealing to him rejoiced or trembled. Round his 
neck, also, was the breastplate of judgment, said to possess the 
property of squeezing the neck on the utterance of a false 
decision.* 

There were schools of the Druids like the schools of the pro¬ 
phets of old. Iona was their inner sanctuary; and here a train¬ 
ing-college for their order existed for centuries. Here also they 
buried their kings. They seem .to have loved island refuges. 
Mona, or Anglesey, was also their favourite island, and Guernsey 
and Jersey are full of their altars. 

Some, of their triads or wise sayings are very instructive, such 
as, There are three unseemly thoughts,—Hhinking ourselves 
wise; thinking every person else unwise; thinking all we like 
becoming in us.^ There are three sorts of men,—^a man to God, 
whp does good for evil; a man to man, who does good for good 
and evil for evil; and a man to the devil, who does evil for 
good.^ ” And while the bardic motto was, actually, Truth 
against the world,’^—still, of revealed truth they knew nothing; 
superstition and cruelty mingled even with their simple forms of 


Meyrick’s Costumes.' 




82 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


worship, and priest and people were alike perishing for lack 
of knowledge. 

The Romans called the Druids barbarians they called all 
barbarians whom they considered as less enlightened than them¬ 
selves and the Grreeks: they called the Jews barbarians, even in 
the times of the apostles. Romans, Greeks, and barbarians were, 
in their view, the chief divisions among mankind. 

Rome, like an immense beehive, did as England now does,— 
sent forth its swarms from time to time into the countries which 
its legions had subdued. The Romans believed in many gods, 
but had no objection to add to their own gods those of the people 
they conquered, so as to reconcile them to their yoke. Such was 
the idea of the common people; but the learned men, though 
they seemed to agree with the vulgar, professed among themselves 
to worship only one god in a great variety of forms. 

They constructed systems which they thought very wise, and 
divided themselves into a great many sects named after thjcir 
founders, Epicurus, Aristotle, Plato, etc. These sects were 
always multiplying errors; and whenever any truth is found 
among them, they had gathered it from the Jews, who were scat¬ 
tered everywhere, and w’hom they held in the greatest contempt, 
as well as the idea of their possessing a Divine revelation. 

We left the Jewish king, Aristobulus, in chains at Rome. 
The history of the Jewish nation was at this time so full of 
shocking crimes, that their own historian, Josephus, knows not 
how to recite it. The Romans divided Judea into five provinces, 
and appointed governors to each. 

One of these governors, Herod, afterward persuaded the Ro¬ 
mans to make him king. He was the son of Antipater, an Idu- 
mean, and he was the Herod who was king at the birth of Christ, 
—the Herod who killed his own wife, the beautiful Mariamne, 
without cause, and the Herod who rebuilt the temple—the old 
building being taken down in parts as the new one was raised. 
This temple was destined to be more honoured than ever temple 
had been before. It was very beautiful: it stood on Mount Zion, 




THE TEMPLE. 


83 


the open courts around it paved with inlaid marbles, the roof of 
carved cedar covered with gold, supported by 162 columns of 
white marble. One of its ten gates was called ‘^the beautiful 
gate,^^ which was about thirty yards high, made of pure brass: 
over this gate hung a golden vine, to which the worshippers were 
continually adding a golden leaf or a golden grape. The roof was 
studded with golden spikes, to prevent birds from settling upon 
it. When the sun shone upon this pile of snowy marble, it 
must indeed have been gorgeous. 

The ceremonial service of this temple was, just previous to the 
coming of Christ, carried out with regularity and splendour. The 
synagogues, also, or houses appointed for prayer and the reading 
of the Law, by Ezra, were scattered thickly all over the land. 

The whole of the sacred writings were divided with reference 
to the synagogue service, so that there might be a portion for 
every Sabbath. At first, it is said, the Law only was read; but 
that being forbidden by the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes, por¬ 
tions of the Prophets were read instead, until the people, being 
released from his tyranny, restored the reading of the Law, and 
continued that of the Prophets.* 

At the time of Christ, there were more than 400 synagogues 
in Jerusalem alone. There were in every synagogue some paid 
ministers, called, in the New Testament, rulers of the syna¬ 
gogue,^^ who seem to have dealt out judgment for offences against 
reh'gion and morals. Hence we hear that the apostles were to 
be beaten in the synagogue,^' and scourged in the synagogue.^^ 
Matt. X. 17; Mark xiii. 9. 

Now let us look at these rulers of the synagogue. They were 
Pharisees—men who pretended to revere Moses, and to live by 
his rules, who delighted to dwell on the pomp and splendour of 
their ancient ordinances, and the glory of their Law, hut who took 
the liberty of adding to it very much. 

Josephus says, The Pharisees have delivered to the people 
many observances by succession from their fathers, (i. e. handed 


* Smith’s Hebrew People.’ 




84’ 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


down from father to son) which are not written in the Law of 
Moses.^^ 


The Pharisees set up a claim to be more wise and holy than 
the Sadducees, who said, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow 
we die.^^ The Sadducees did not add to the Bible, but they took 
from it all hut the five books of Moses ) and even these they 
would not believe, if they could not understand them. The Sad¬ 
ducees were like our modern infidels, while the papists resemble 
the Pharisees. There was another sect, called the Essenes, who 
were so disgusted with both parties, that they forsook the syna¬ 
gogues and the cities, and looking upon the body as the prison of 
the soul, retired to solitude and hardship, as the monks did in 
after-time. They refused to marry, lived on vegetables, wore a 
peculiar dress, and observed almost perpetual silence. 

We must describe to you a few of the additions made by the 
Pharisees to the Law of God. 


Certain learned persons in the days of the Maccabees had 
written books, called Targums,^^ signifying interpretation. 
Onkelos, the ancestor of Gamaliel, Paul's instructor, had written 
one targum ; and a rabbi, named Jonathan, had written another. 
We will show you how Kabbi Jonathan had altered the sense in 
expounding the 53d chapter of Isaiah— 


Isaiah liii. 

7 He was oppressed and he was af¬ 
flicted j yet he opened not his mouth : 
he is brought as a lamb to the slaugh¬ 
ter, and as a sheep before her shearers 
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. 


8 He was taken from prison and 
from judgment: and who shall declare 
his generation ? for he was cut off out 
of the land of the living; for the trans¬ 
gression of my people was he stricken. 


Jonathan’s Targum. 

7 He has prayed, he has been heard j 
and before he opened his mouth he 
was accepted. The strong of the peo¬ 
ple he shall deliver as a lamb for a 
sacrifice, and as a sheep that is silent 
before the shearer; and there shall 
be none who shall open his mouth in 
his presence, and speak a word. 

8 From chastisements and reveng- 
ings he shall gather our captivityand 
the wonderful things that shall bo done 
for us in his days, who shall be able to 
recite? For he shall take away the 
dominion of the nations from the land 
of Israel; the sins which my people 
have committed, even upon them shall 
they c'bme. 



THE TARGUMS. 


S5 

The 53d chapter of Isaiah contains a minute and perfect pro¬ 
phecy of the coming of our Lord in his humility. This kind of 
coming, the eyes of the Jewish teachers were not in the least 
degree open to perceive. They expected a mighty deliverer and 
conqueror, and were totally unprepared to acknowledge their 
Messiah in the helpless babe of Bethlehem. 

As they themselves believed, so they taught the people. Jesus 
called them, when he came, blind leaders of the blind.” 
Among these, however, there seem to have been a few who, as 
Malachi says, spake often one to another,” and who were, like 
Zacharias and Elisabeth, righteous before God, and walking in 
all the ordinances of the Lord blameless.” These few must have 
rejected the traditions of the Pharisees, and must secretly and 
devoutly have studied the sacred writings themselves. They 
were waiting for the consolation,” and ^Mooking for the re¬ 
demption of Israel.” 

The Pharisees were making the word of God of none effect 
by their tradition.” This, again, is our Saviour’s own testimony 
concerning them. They were no longer the Church of the Book. 
The Book itself remained pure and perfect as it always had been j 
but these men declared that the word of God was divided into two 
parts—the written and the unwritten. Both parts, they said, 
were given to Moses on Mount Sinai; but he committed the 
unwritten by word of mouth to Joshua and the seventy elders, 
who again committed it to the rabbins, who were to deliver it to the 
people. These were some of their sayings : The Scriptures are 
water, but the traditions are wine.” The words of the scribes 
are lovely above the words of the Law.” Some of the words 
of the Law are weighty, but the traditions are,all weighty.” 

This was the way in which they expounded the fourth com¬ 
mandment ; viz. To do no work on the Sabbath-day. If a loaf 
were to be carried on that day by a single person, he would be 
guilty; but if two persons carried it together, both were innocent. 
God had said, that he who made a vow should keep it. Num. 
XXX. 2. Tradition said, if he were weary of the vow, he might 
go to a wise man, and be absolved from it. 

8 



86 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


And the people soon learned to set the authority of their rab¬ 
bins above the authority of Scripture. It was said that all 
instructions from the Law were to be finished when a boy was ten 
years old, and the remainder of his education must be from the 
traditions. The Jews of the present day, it is said, withdraw 
their children from the Bible at the age of seven or eight; i. e. 
as soon as the boy’s mind is capable of understanding the Talmud. 

Prevent your children,” said Rabbi Eliezer, from reading 
the word of God too much, lest they should bo carried away with 
it.” Alas ! alas ! that such should be the sayings of Israel, the 
chosen people ! Thus they became almost as ignorant of God 
and of his truth as were the pagans around them—all, excepting 
the small remnant kept faithful by the grace of God, who neither 
added to the word nor took away from it, and who were, doubt¬ 
less, saying in their hearts, It is time for thee. Lord, to work, 
for they have made void thy Law,” when Simeon and Anna 
welcomed the Holy One once more to his temple, and by the 
revelation of the Holy Ghost proclaimed Him as a light 
to lighten the Gentiles,” as well as the glory of his people 
Israel.” 


At the time of the birth of our Lord, the whole Roman world 
was at peace, and the temple of Janus shut. No remarkable 
event attracts our attention to any other part of the earth at the 
time when John the Baptist came crying in the wilderness of 
Judea, ^‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths 
straight.” 

John was a noble young Jew, of about thirty years of age, 
who appeared in the deserts. We may imagine him in his rough 
raiment of camel’s hair, as of striking and powerful presence, 
with unshorn black locks and beard, and the flashing dark eye 
of his nation, crying, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven 
is at hand.” He wrought no miracles, displayed no supernatural 
power, yet seemed a most unearthly being, raised up by God for 
the time, and in harmony with the place. 




JOHN THE BAPTIST. 


87 


Genuine and deep piety always impressed the common people, 
and the words of John set thousands of consciences to work that 
before were slumbering. Slothful, luxurious Jerusalem, sleeping 
in its sins, arose in one day, and went out to be baptized of John 
in the Jordan. 

God might have sent his prophet into the city, but he was the 
man for the desert. His ministry had all its influence there. 

“ Prepare ye the way of the Lord,^' said he; make bis 
paths straight.The Jehovah of Sinai, the God who made the 
worlds, was coming to make a royal progress; to walk through 
the cities and villages of Judea; not as one of the silken rabbins 
of Jerusalem, with flowing robes and haughty air, but choosing 
rather the common seamless robe of a carpenter, woven from the 
top throughout, in which to teach the people the Truth of which 
he was himself the author. 

On the slopes of that long line of mountains which run down 
the land of Palestine, once the strongholds of the mighty Re- 
phaim, were now gathered crowds thinking of their sins. They 
broke away from their customary occupations in Jerusalem, to 
throng around this strange preacher of the desert, where, with 
eager expectation and awakened minds, thousands of them listened 
to the voice of him who cried in the wilderness, Repent ye j 
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.^' It seems that even the 
hardened conscience of King Herod himself was awakened by 
the preaching of John: Herod feared John, knowing that he 
was a just man and^ observed him; and when he 

heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.^^ Mark 
vi. 20. 

Now let us mark the great Pharisees and Sadducees approach¬ 
ing the Jordan, and see what a. fierce reception they met with : 

Oh, generation of vipers ! who hath warned you to flee from 
the wrath to come V* They talked about Abraham being their 
father, but were as unlike Abraham as possible. 

The great cedars of Judaism !—they were cut down, being full 
of all manner of unclean birds; and great was the fall of them. 
Their boughs were all scattered about the world, as they are to 



THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


^8 

this day : the axe of the Lord was laid to their root, for they had 
not given glory to the King of kings, but had perverted his most 
Holy Word. 

Then, behold the humility of John the Baptist! There 
cometh one mightier than I, whose shoe’s latchet I am not wor¬ 
thy to unloose.” The ministry of the forerunner John was 
rejected by the proud Pharisees, and they afterward denied the 
Son of God himself, and put him to an open shame. 

So the Lord came to his own, and his own received him not; 
but he was a light to lighten the Gentiles, and truly their dark¬ 
ness needed it: they worked the works of darkness, and were in 
the power of the devil, who led them captive at his will, and who 
dared to say to the Saviour himself, that his were all the king¬ 
doms of the world and the glory of them.” 

Jesus related a parable, (Matt. xii. 29,) showing in what sense 
it was so. He declared himself as come to take possession of a 
house, and of the things in it: this house was the world, and the 
things in it were the souls of men. 

Jesus came to rescue these precious souls from Satan’s power. 
He compares Satan to the strong man who was in the house, and 
who tried to prevent the Saviour from entering in. He said, he 
must first bind the strong man, and then he would spoil his goods. 

This he came down to earth to do, by suffering death in his 
mortal body; and he is still engaged in releasing captives day by 
day from the power of Satan; and the day shall come when he 
shall lay hold on that old serpent the devil,” and bind him a 
thousand years, (see Kev. xx. 2,) and then indeed he shall spoil 
his goods.”* 


But we have still the tale of 1800 years to tell, and must hasten 
.onward, especially with the Story of the Book. 

The life and actions of our Lord and of his apostles are, perhaps, 
better known by the young than any other parts of the Bible. 


« Light in the Dwelling.' 





THE NEW TESTAMENT. 


89 


After the crucifixion and ascension of the Redeemer into 
heaven, the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 
inspired men, as were the prophets of old, committed to writing 
those particulars which the Holy Ghost saw fit should be preserved, 
concerning the ministry of their Master, for our benefit. Luke 
then recorded their own acts and missionary travels. Paul, the 
converted persecutor, and attendant at the first martyrdom of a 
Christian, (that of Stephen,) wrote fourteen letters to the churches 
which he had founded, while James, Peter, Jude, and John com¬ 
pleted the New Testament canon. 

Some of these books are called by Paul the New Testament, 
(see 2 Cor. iii. 6,) while he refers to the Mosaic dispensation as 
the Old Testament. 

The different churches formed by the apostles in the first cen¬ 
tury received these books by degrees, and each church gradually 
obtained them all. Among the various opinions entertained con¬ 
cerning the person who finally collected them together, the most 
natural seems to be, that this was done by the Apostle John, 
whose life was long preserved by God for the comfort of the 
church. He was nearly one hundred years old when he died, and 
was himself inspired to utter the magnificent prophecies of the 
last portion of the Sacred Scriptures. 

When he was very old, and unable to say much in the Christian 
assemblies, Children, love one another,’^ was his constantly-re¬ 
peated exhortation. Being asked why he only told them one 
thing, he answered that nothing else was needed. 

Oh that the Christian Church had always remembered this!— 
’'the last word of the last apostle repeating the words of his Master, 
As I have loved you, that ye also love one another,^^ (John xiii. 
34;) and the words of his brother Paul, ^^Love is the fulfilling 
of the law.^^ Rom. xiii. 10. 

On the acts and revelations of this first century, as it is called, 
(for at the coming of Christ the age of the world began again,) 
it has pleased God to fix the eye of all true believers ever since. 
The deeds and sayings of all after-centuries derive fheir importance 
only from their connection with the Jirstj because that algne was 



90 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


the century in which more mighty pillars of miracle and prophecy 
were reared to support the Church of Christ, than even those 
which lent their Divine strength to the Church of the wilderness, 
and of the promised land. 

The Son of God was manifested; that he might destroy the 
works of the devil.1 John iii. 8. The commission he gave to 
his apostles was to follow in his steps. They were to preach the 
gospel; and he also gave them power to heal the sick, to raise 
the dead, and to cast out devils, in his name, as a witness to the 
truth they preached. 

These men, gifted with more than human power, were to he the 
fathers of the Church of the New Testament. Afterward he 
appointed other seventy also, (Luke x. 1,) and to them gave the 
same miraculous gifts. Their number was the same as that of 
the elders among the Jews, who went up with Moses to the mount. 

It is fairly to be concluded, that many who had been converted 
by the preaching of John in the wilderness, became afterward the 
disoiples of his Divine Master. The first church in Jerusalem is 
mentioned as composed of 120 members, (Acts i. 15;) and we 
afterward hear that our Lord was seen after his resurrection by 
above five hundred brethren at once, (1 Cor. xv. 6;) but as the 
greater number of these were Jewish converts, they probably 
shared in the expectations of their nation, and had received the 
Messiah, expecting him as a glorious king and temporal deliverer. 
Acts i. 6. 

His revelation of himself and his designs, even to those chosen 
few, was very gradual,—as they could receive it.^^ By very 
few, at first, was he really believed to be the Son of God. John 
the Baptist was one of the few who witnessed to this, and 
Nathanael, and afterward Peter, to whom his Master answered. 

Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father 
which is in heaven.^^ Matt. xvi. 17. 

The Lord was about to commit the treasure of Divine revelation 
(no more to one earthly nation, who had proved unfaithful to its 
precepts, even while they guarded it sacredly down fifteen centu¬ 
ries to bear witness against themselves, but) into the care of a 



FULFILMENT OF PREDICTIONS. 


91 


Dody” composed of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and 
tongues,—by them to be published throughout all the world. 

In the hour when he partook of his last supper with his disci¬ 
ples, and dispensed to them the bread, which was the image of his 
bo^y to be broken for them (1 Cor. xi. 24,) and the wine, which 
was the image of his blood shed for the remission of their sins, 
(Matt. xxvi. 28,) he drew the infant church into the nearest and 
tenderest communion with himself; he told them, that as the 
world had hated Afw, so it would hate them; that the servant 
was not greater than his lord j therefore, that the time would come, 
when whosoever killed them would think that they did God ser¬ 
vice; and that if any man would come after him, he must deny 
himself, and take tijp Ms cross and follow him, (see John, 
xiii. and xvi.) This oneness in suffering with him was to 
prepare them for being one with him in his glory. 

These predictions of the Saviour were, according to church his¬ 
tory, literally fulfilled to all who listened to them. In the first 
onset of danger, they all forsook him and fled,^^—they could 
not (as he said to Peter) follow him then, but they did follow 
him afterward.^^ 

Peter himself was crucified by Nero, at Rome; 

Andrew, in Achaia; 

James was beheaded by Herod Agrippa; 

Philip suffered martyrdom in Phrygia; 

Bartholomew, in Armenia; 

Thomas, called Didymus, was put to death, bv stoning, in India; 

Matthew suffered death in Ethiopia; ^ 

James the Just was murdered at Jerusalem; 

Jude, by the Magi, in Persia; 

Simon Zelotes, at Jerusalem; and 

John, after being preserved unhurt, by miracle, in a caldron of 
boiling oil, appears to have been the only one who died a natural 
death, at an advanced age, (see John xxi. 22.) 

The other inspired writers of the New Testament— 

Mark, dying of his wounds at Alexandria, 

Luke, hanged on a tree in Greece, and 



92 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Paul, beheaded by Nero, in his anger at the conversion of his 
favourite cupbearer,—without exception, sealed their testimony 
with their blood; and, ere they did so, ^‘were,'^ as St. Paul tells 
us, counted the offscouring of all things;’^ ^Hroubled on every 
side;’^ ^^persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not de¬ 
stroyed;’^ always bearing about in the body the dying of ^he 
Lord Jesus;” ^^alwaysdelivered unto death for Jesus’ sake; beaten, 
stoned, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, in stripes 
above measure, in prisons frequent, in deaths oft.” See 1 Cor. 
iv. and 2 Cor. iv. and xi.—Nothing could have supported them 
steadfast under these trials, but that rich effusion of the Spirit, 
on the day of Pentecost, which had caused them to perceive 
fully, that the same Jesus which was crucified was both Lord 
and Christ. Paul received this knowledge afterward, by a special 
revelation to himself, ^^and straightway preached Jesus in the 
synagogues that he is the Son of God.” 

Such was the history of the apostles. In the next chapter we 
shall look for some of their successors. 

The New Testament comes down to us through a line of 
crowned heads,—but their crown was the crown of martyrdom. 

The first pagan persecution against the Christians was raised 
by the Emperor Nero, about thirty years after the crucifixion. 
This is mentioned by the great Koman historian, Tacitus. He 
says, that Ron^; being set on fire, Nero declared it was the work 
0 ^ the Christians, and put great numbers of them to death, after 
frightful tortur^^? Other heathen writers mention the Chris¬ 
tians as being punished with the troublesome coat,” which was 
made like a sMf, of coarse cloth, besmeared with pitch, wax, and 
sulphur; and, being dressed in this coat, they were hung by their 
chins on sharp stakes fixed in the ground, and then burnt— 

“ In that pitch’d shirt, in ■which such crowds expire, 

Chain’d to the bloody stake, and wrapp’d in fire.” 

Nero had them burnt at midnight, ^^for torches,” as he said, ^Ho 
the city.” This persecution lasted for three or four years, and 
spread through the Roman empire. An inscription dug up in 



PAGAN PERSECUTIONS. 


93 


Spain shows that the gospel had already penetrated that country, 
and that the church there had her martyrs. 

In the reign of Nero, Suetonius was sent into Britain, and at¬ 
tacked the Druids in their strongholds in Mona. He caused 
many of them to be burnt in the fires they had prepared for their 
expected captives, and destroyed their groves and altars. St. 
Paul was sent to Borne, according to Eusebius, in the second 
year of Nero, that is A. d. 56, and he stayed there, according to 
Luke, two years. The British prince Caractacus, and his father 
Bran, were sent to Borne in the year 51, and stayed there, as 
hostages, for seven years. It is said, in the Welsh ^Hriads,^^ 
that Bran was the first who brought the Christian faith to the 
Cymry, or Welsh. He had, therefore, in all probability, received 
it from Paul at Borne: thus early came the pure gospel to Wales. 
It is said that Bran brought back with him three Christian 
teachers,—Illtid, an Israelite; Cyndaf; and Arwystli, which ia 
Welsh for Aristobulus, to whom Paul sends salutation, Bom. 
xvi. 10. 

Tacitus likewise informs us that London at this time contained 
many merchants and much merchandise. 

How unlike was the London of which he speaks to our modern 
London! Its very pathways were different; for traces of Boman 
floors and highways are found twenty feet below our present 
streets. There is little doubt that the Bomans brought in their 
train, from the large family of Christian brethren in Borne, some 
manuscripts of the Gospels, some teachers of the Story of Peace 
among those men of war; and that there would be hymns sung 
to Jesus Christ in some corner of the old Boman town. Christi¬ 
anity, through the labours of the apostles, had taken deep hold 
of the people in the south of Europe; and many flourishing 
churches were, as we know, established in Greece. 

A person asked Apollo how he should cause his wife to re¬ 
linquish Christianity. ^Mt is easier, perhaps,” replied the oracle, 
^Ho write on water, or to fly into the air, than to reclaim her. 
Leave her alone in her folly, to hynin in a faint, mournful voice, 



94 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


the praises of the dead God, who publicly suffered death from 
judges of singular wisdom. 

We must conclude with a brief notice of the dreadful destruc¬ 
tion of Jerusalem by Titus, A. D. 70. The Jews having refused 
the usual tribute to the Romans, he came to enforce it. The 
city and temple were burnt, and the ground ploughed up, for the 
purpose of obtaining the precious things buried in the rubbish. 
The wicked Jews had said, His blood be on us and on our chil¬ 
dren,'^ and it was so. Never was destruction of any city or people 
so terrible. A hundred thousand were sold as slaves to the 
neighbouring nations; multitudes were transported to the mines 
in Egypt; and more than a million perished by famine and sword, 
by pestilence and crucifixion. Only those among the Jews who 
were believers in Christ were prepared for this final breaking up 
of their national glory and the visible splendours of their temple 
—^having learned that the priesthood of Christ took the place of 
all other priesthoods, and rendered utterly useless any further 
ceremonies or sacrifices at Jerusalem. 

They had no continuing city," but they sought one to come. 
The epistle of Paul to these Hebrews is full of consolation, espe¬ 
cially suited to their sorrowful hearts. 

In the year 81, occurred the Homitian persecution, during 
which Christianity appears to have been carried to Scotland, by 
some of the disciples of the Apostle John. These persecutions, 
of which there are said to have been ten, were always the means 
of scattering still more widely the seed of the word. Wherever 
Christians were driven, they were sure to take some portions of 
their Scriptures with them. No historian, like Tacitus, cele¬ 
brated their heroic sacrifices and secret escapes. Heroes and 
statesmen have their records here; the saints, on high. 





CHAPTER Y. 






Gradual Circulation of the New Testament—Earliest Heresies—Uninspired 
Teachers—Progress of the Gospel—The Book becomes the Guide—Eight 
more Pagan Persecutions—Particulars of these—Dioclesian’s Medals—Reign 
of Constantine, his mistaken Zeal—The Rise of Monasteries—Progress of the 
Papacy—Alaric—Versions of Scripture—The Alexandrine Version—First 
Protests—Vigilantius—Nestorius—The Nestorian Christians—The Armenian 
Church—The Paulicians—The Abyssinian Church—The British Church in 
Wales, in Scotland, in Ireland—Succat—Columba—Iona. 

The first century, as we know, stands alone in its enjo 3 m[ient, 
for three years and a half, of the public ministry of him ^^who 
spake as never man spake,^^ and was himself the Living Word. 

The first century was also that in which the persons lived who 
were inspired to record his sayings; and the living teaching of 
inspired persons must have been very precious; but it could not 
have been continual. The apostles were all missionaries. They 
went forth into all the world to plant churches, and seldom stayed 
long in one place. The Gospels and Epistles were only in course 
of writing,—not written, and gathered together,—therefore very 
few churches and still fewer individuals were in possession of 
more than separate manuscripts, and not even of these till the 
latter half of the century. 

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, were not written, 
as Mr. Horne thinks, till about the time of Nero’s persecution, 
A. D. 62, and these, with the inspired Epistles or letters to the 
already founded churches, became eminently necessary to check 
the errors and heresies which, even then, as the apostles them¬ 
selves state, had arisen in them. 

Take, for instance, the church at Corinth, consisting of many 
Jews, but more Gentiles : their danger, therefore, sometimes arose 
from Jewish prejudice, sometimes from heathen wickedness; for 

95 


96 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


it was out of these two classes that the Christian converts were 
purified and separated. This church had eminent preachers after 
Paul left, for here Paul planted and Apollos watered but, 
nevertheless, false teachers soon afterward crept in, some desiring 
to continue the Jewish ceremonies, others not leading a pure and 
holy life. 

In his Epistle to the church of Ephesus, he also speaks of 
grievous wolves entering in among them, not sparing the flock 
in the Epistle to Timothy—of seducing spirits, forbidding to 

marry, and commanding to abstain from meatswhile, in the 
second Epistle to the Thessalonians, chap, ii., he draws a full- 
length portrait of that mystery of iniquity,’^ as he calls it, 
which he declares was beginning to work then, and would work 
on, even till the second coming of the Lord. 

As the inspired letters of Paul and Peter were received, and 
gradually circulated among the churches, the faithful obtained a 
standing rule whereby they might bo warned from these false 
teachers and growing evils. Paul desires that his Epistles to 
the Thessalonians may be read to all the holy brethrenand 
when he wrote to the Colossians, he begged they would send the 
letter to the Laodiceans : but as, in those ages, books were all 
written at the expense of great time and labour, it is probable 
that copies of the whole Scriptures were still a rare treasure, and 
that the greatest dependence was placed on the opinion of bishops 
and rulers in the several congregations, in all matters of diffi¬ 
culty. 

When the apostles were all dead, we have no ground for sup¬ 
posing that even those who had conversed the most intimately 
with them, had received of their inspiration or miraculous gifts. 
Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, 
Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, were holy men living in the second 
century. The two former had conversed freely with the apostles, 
and they both were martyrs for the Christian faith. Some of 
their writings have been preserved, but they are easily distin¬ 
guished from the inspired writings. 

One of the sayings of Ignatius, however, (who was thrown to 



EARLIEST HERESIES. 


97 


wild beasts, at Rome, A. d. 107,) is especially worthy to be re¬ 
membered—that in order to understand the will of God, he 
fled to the Gospels, which he believed not less than if Christ in 
the flesh had been speaking to him; and to the writings of the 
apostles, whom he esteemed as the presbytery of the whole 
church.^' 

The Greek translation of the Old Testament seems to have 
been possessed by every church which the apostles founded in 
the flrst century; and it is well known, that before the middle 
of the second century, the New Testament, also, was not only 
collected into a volume, but was read in every Christian society 
as a rule of faith and manners. ' Hence, before its close, Tertul- 
lian, the presbyter of Carthage, could say of himself and his fel- 
low-Christians We are but of yesterday, and yet we fill all that 
is called yours—your cities, islands, forts, towns, assemblies, 
camps, palaces, senate, court,^^ and this, in spite of two more 
barbarous pagan persecutions, under Trajan and under Marcus 
Antoninus. Lyons, in France, which is said to have received 
the gospel through the merchants of Smyrna, especially shared 
in the fourth persecution; and the sustaining power of God to 
her martyrs in their sufferings seems to have been little less than 
in the times of the apostles themselves. 

Indeed, these persecutions from the pagans were blessings to 
the Christians : their Master had said to them, Blessed are ye 
when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all 
manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.^^ Matt. v. 11. 
Like Israel in Egypt, of old time, the more they were afflicted, 
the more they multiplied and grew,^^ (Exod. i. 12 ;) the more 
they suffered, the more they were driven to hold fast the faith- 
fid word” and also to love one another” It was only in de¬ 
parting from these two grand simple principles of union, in per¬ 
mitting the opinions of their teachers to be set above the “ faith¬ 
ful word,’^ and in that striving ^^who should be greatest,” which 
was not in honour preferring one another,” that the mystery 
of iniquity,” of which St. Paul had prophesied, arose and pros¬ 
pered. 


9 



98 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


In all this they were “ without excuse for when the Chris¬ 
tian church had received the written Gospel, she was to be judged 
by it, as the Jewish church of old, after she had received the 
Law. She was to be the Church of the Book—the pure and 
perfect Book of Inspired Truth. 

The earliest heresies arose before the books of the New Testa¬ 
ment were gathered together; and these chiefly concerned the 
person of the Saviour. Some enemies denied that he was God, 
and others denied that he was man—both rejecting his sacrifice 
for sin. 

Heresies’^ at first meant errors contrary to the teaching of 
the inspired apostles ; but when the teachers of the church were 
no longer inspired, the Book became the unfailing guide; and 
the real meaning of “heresy’^ was, from that time, error con¬ 
trary to the faithful word.^^ 

For 300 years after the ascension of their Lord to heaven, the 
sufferings of the people of God arose from the world, which 

hated them’^ for their witness against its sins and its false 
gods; and this period of 300 years comprises the ten pagan per¬ 
secutions. 

Since that time, their sufferings have arisen from that party 
among themselves who, assuming temporal power over the rest, 
made “ heresy^^ to consist in error contrary to the voice of the 
church and who, alas! in all ages and in all countries, have 
often perscuted those who only desired to hold fast the faithful 
word.^' 

We must tell you two or three facts concerning the pagan 
persecutions, and show you, meanwhile, how the mystery of 
iniquity^^ took its rise. 

The fifth persecution was in 203, under Severus. 

The sixth in 235, under Maximin. 

The seventh, a most destructive one, in 250, under Decius. 

The eighth in 257, under Valerian. 

The ninth in 274, under Aurelian. 

The tenth in 303, under Bioclesian. 



THE CHILD-MARTYR—THE SOLDIER^ S CHOICE. 


99 


The vast number of those who suffered for Christ under these 
persecutions has never been reckoned by man ; but they will all 
take rank in the noble army of martyrs’^ who will attend the 
King in his glory. AYe can speak in detail of but one or two. 

In the ninth persecution, at Cesarea, in Cappadocia, a child, 
named Cyril, showed uncommon fortitude: neither threats nor 
blows could prevent his praying to Jesus Christ continually. His 
father turned him out of doors, and brought him before the 
judge, who said, My child, I will pardon your faults, and your 
father shall receive you again, if you will worship Jupiter.'^ 
said the child; God will receive me : I am not sorry I 
have been turned out of our house; I shall have ^a better man¬ 
sion,’ (the dear child must have found this in the Book :) I fear 
not death ; it will introduce me to a better life.” He was bound 
and led to execution, with orders to bring him back, if the sight 
of the fire conquered him. Your fire and your sword,” said 
the young martyr, ‘^are naught to me. I go to a better house 
and to more excellent riches. Despatch me presently, that I may 
enjoy them.” 

Thus he went to his death. So you see there have been chil¬ 
dren in the noble army of martyrs,—children who loved the 
Book, and realized its true riches. 

At Cesarea, in Palestine, a brave and noble soldier, named 
Morinus, was a Christian. The governor of the city called upon 
him to own if his faith prevented his being raised to the office of 
centurion, on which he confessed his principles, and three hours 
were given him to recant them. His bishop, Theoctenes, took 
him by the hand, and led him to their church, showed him the 
sword that hung by his side, and a New Testament which he 
took from his vest. Marinus stretched out his hand, and clasped 
the Holy Scriptures. ^^Hold fast,” then said Theoctenes; 
“cleave close to him whom you have chosen. You shall be 
strengthened by him, and depart in peace.” After three hours 
he was beheaded, manfully confessing the faith ot Christ.* 


*■ See Milner’s ‘‘ Church History.’ 





100 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Those who worshipped idols used to put cords round the nechs 
of the Christians, and drag them to the temples to sacrifice to 
their gods; and when they would not do this, persecution raged 
.against them with ceaseless fury. The last persecution, under 
Dioclesian, was the worst of all. It raged especially in Africa; 
and from the history of those final tortures which the Christians 
endured from the pagans, we may learn how great was his power 
who kept his people steadfast through the age when demons 
seemed set upon them utterly to destroy them. The emperor 
gave orders to burn their books, to throw down their churches, 
to fall upon all those who kept the Lord’s-day, and who would 
not burn incense to Jupiter. 

At the dawn of morning, on the day of the feast of Terminalia, 
a prefect of the Praetorian band entered the church of Nicomedia. 
He first burned the sacred Scriptures, then destroyed the build¬ 
ing, and a bloody massacre commenced. All that fire, boiling 
water, wild beasts, starvation, crucifixion, and pain of every sort 
could bring, to compel the Christians to sacrifice to idols, was in 
vain. 

In the Thebais, in Egypt, axes were so blunted with mangled 
limbs, and the executioners so tired of slaughter, that it was 
necessary to send for fresh men and new axes to complete the 
work. 

There was not a province, city or town in the Eoman empire 
—not a hamlet, garden, or cottage in Koine—in which pursuit 
for the Christians was not made : the few that escaped fled to 
the most solitary deserts. I have visited,"'' says Dr. Walsh, 

in remote places in the east, caverns in the sides of nearly inac- 
cessable mountains, where they endeavoured to find refuge during 
this dismal period."" In one province alone, 150,000 Christians 
perished cruelly; sometimes 100 in a day—17,000 in a month. 
It was intended entirely to blot out Christianity from the earth, 
and medals were struck by Diocletian, with this motto—‘^Hav¬ 
ing everywhere subdued the Christian superstition, and restored 
the worship of the gods."" Pillars with the above inscription 
were erected in Spain. 



THE KORAN. 


101 


The British Christians came in for their share of this persecu¬ 
tion from the Boman empire; and Diocletian, by striking the 
disciples of Jesus in Britain, only increased their number. 
Many took refuge in Scotland, where, under the name of Cul- 
dees, they prayed for those who sheltered them. When the sur¬ 
rounding pagans saw the holiness of these men of God, they left 
their sacred’oaks, and abandoned the worship of the sun and the 
serpent, to obey the gentle voice of the gospel. 

The Diocletian persecution continued ten years. Houses were 
filled with Christians, and the whole number burned to ashes. 
Companies of fifty were tied together with ropes, and in droves 
were hurried into the sea. Three hundred at once were suffo¬ 
cated in a lime-kiln. Swords, red-hot chairs, wheels for stretch¬ 
ing human bodies, and talons of iron to tear them—all were the 
instruments of pagan Home against the Christians. Yet still 
they would not sacrifice to idols, and they would not give up the 
Book. Why,^^ it was said to Euplius, a Sicilian martyr, ‘‘why 
do you not give up the Scriptures, as the emperor has forbidden 
them “ Because,said he, “ I am a Christian. Life eternal 
is in them. He who gives them up loses life eternal \” 


So, then, these martyrs died, like the Maccabees of old; and 
Satan, weary of thus in vain assaulting the Church of the Book, 
resolved on two vast schemes against the Book itself. He changed 
Borne Pagan into Borne Papal. ITaving laid deep and broad the 
foundations for that “ mystery of iniquity,he taught her ^o hide 
the Book which should witness against her; and this snare being 
ready for the western world, he turned towards the east, and 
caused Mohammed to bring forth a false revelation,—a mock 
Bible,—called “ the Koran,^^ or, “ that which ought to be read.'^ 
Though this Koran was a tissue of profane and old wives’ fables, 
mixed up with some strange repetitions of the Scripture narratives, 
yet it bound together, in one mighty Saracen empire, all the wild 
sons of Joktan, of Ishmael, and of. Esau. These combining to 
believe this Koran, and to force others to believe it with the swordj 

9 * 




102 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


caused it, within the period of eighty years, to be acknowledged 
over the greater part of Asia and of Africa, and they threatened 
to seat it even in the heart of Europe. 

The following may serve as a specimen of comparison between 
the Bible and the Koran for those who might never see the latter: 


Bible. 

I was envious at the foolish, when I 
saw the prosperity of the wicked. . . 

. . . Thus my heart was grieved, 

Psalm Ixxiii. 3. 21. 

But when thou doest alms, let not thy 
left hand know what thy right hand 
doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: 
and thy Father, which seeth in secret, 
himself shall reward thee openly. Matt, 
vi. 3, 4. 

These both were cast alive into a lake 
of fire burning with brimstone. Rev. 
xix. 20. 


Koran. 

Cast not thine eyes on the good 
things which we have bestowed on 
sevei-al of the unbelievers, so as to 
covet the same; neither be thou 
grieved on their account. 

If ye make your alms to appear, it 
is well; but if ye conceal them, and 
give them unto the poor, this will be 
better for you, and will atone for your 
sins; and God is well informed of that 
which ye do. Ch. ii. p. 30. 

Verily, those who disbelieve our 
signs, we will surely cast to be broiled 
in hell fire: so often as their skins 
shall be well burned, we will give 
them other skins in exchange, that 
they may taste the sharper torment: 
for God is mighty and wise. 


The rise of Mohammedanism, however, did not take place until 
the seventh century after Christ, and it then arose and conquered, 
“ because of the heresies that divided, and the corruptions which 
disgraced Christianity.^’* 

We must see how these heresies and corruptions progressed by 
degrees. 

After the Dioclesian persecution, came the reign of Constantine, 
who favoured instead of persecuting the Christians. When the 
bishops met in council, the question as to who should be greatest, 
was a constant source of discord among them. The Bishops of 
Borne, Antioch, and Alexandria had already claimed to be re¬ 
garded as superior to the rest; and the Bishop of Borne declared 


* Forster’s Mohammedanism Unveiled.” 




EMPEROR CONSTANTINE. 


103 


it his right to be the first of all, as being the bishop of the first 
city in the empire. 

Constantine endeavoured to settle their differences, but only 
caused further discontent to one party, the Donatists, whom he 
banished; and you will grieve to hear that the pagans watched 
the contending Christians with triumphant delight, and even held 
them up to ridicule in their theatres: the voice of the conflicting 
church made itself heard above the voice of the faithful word,’^ 
for that had said, Let brotherly love continue.^^ 

Constantine called a great council at Nice, in Bithynia, com¬ 
posed of 300 bishops, where a confession of faith’^ was drawn 
up, which is still the foundation of that called, in the Church of 
England, the Nicene Creed.At this council it appears to have 
been proposed, that the clergy should be forbidden to marry ; but 
it was not agreed upon, as Paphnutius, an African bishop, declared 
it was unscriptural. 

The famous controversy respecting the observance of Easter was 
settled at the Council of Nice,—Constantine declaring, that ‘‘ it 
was not for the dignity of the church to follow that most hateful 
of all people the Jews, in their time of celebrating the passover.^^ 

The Emperor Constantine was a native of Britain, and his 
mother, Helena, is said to have been a British princess. They 
set themselves, with ignorant, but probably good intent, to increase 
the worldly greatness of the Christians, to whom Christ, their 
Master, had said, My kingdom is not of this world,^' (John xviii. 
36,) and whom he had described, as the men which thou gavest 
me out of the world.John xvii. 6. 

The Empress Helena visited Jerusalem, and erected a church 
over the supposed sepulchre of Christ, and caused a number of 
other magnificent churches to be built. As a reward for her 
labours, she was said to have discovered the wood of the true 
cross’^; and with this and the ^^holy earth’^ from Jerusalem, (to 
which all access was forbidden to the Jews,) began the long list 
of relics which have been worshipped ever since, down to the 
“ holy coat of Treves.'’^ 

The bones of the martyrs suddenly became of immense value; 



104 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


and out of tlie very ruins of his former cruelties did the prince 
of this world’' cause to be built up his new and enduring palace 
of papal superstition. 

Constantine next wished the different ranks of bishops in the 
church to be distinguished by particular dresses, and presented 
the Bishop of Rome with the pall,—a splendid robe, originally a 
part of the dress of the emperors; and the crosier and mitre were 
adopted at the same time. 

Every thing was done to reconcile the pagans to Christianity. 
Martyrs and saints were honoured in place of Jupiter and Venus, 
and feasts and dances were held on the graves of the martyrs. 

Monasteries also were greatly encouraged : these were the places 
of residence for monks and nuns. Constantine showed the greatest 
respect for those who willingly retreated from the world, and de¬ 
voted themselves to a life of solitude and hardship. Anthony 
the Egyptian had formed the first household of monks; and Paul, 
a young Christian of the same country, had taken refuge from 
persecution in the deserts, and was probably the first hermit, 
A. D. 253. At the close of the fourth century, 27,000 monks and 
nuns were to be found in Egypt alone. 

It must be admitted, that Constantine did some good service to 
the great cause of Christianity; but, judging of his actions by the 
light of an open Bible, there are reasons to fear that in many in¬ 
stances his zeal was ‘^without knowledge." He did not act, in 
all things, according to the “ mind of Christ’'; and the result of 
his efibrts to extend the Christian faith was to increase the pride 
of the spiritual rulers, and to load the church with worldly pomp 
and grandeur. 

Among the monks, no doubt, were many godly persons who 
took refuge in monasteries, from the evils abounding around them; 
but they forgot that their Master had said, ‘‘I^ray not that thou 
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep 
them from the eviland so, by degrees, they built up a vast 
system which rests on no scriptural foundation. Anthony, the 
first monk, died, aged 105, leaving little behind him but two 
sheepskins, which were sent to two bishops as legacies. 



PROGRESS OF THE PAPACY. 


105 


At first thirty or forty monks lived together in a range of low, 
narrow huts; then a wall was built around these; then each 
community by degrees erected a church for itself, a hospital, and 
a library, and secured a reservoir of water. They slept in a 
rough blanket, on the bare ground; their dress was a coarse 
linen shirt and a sheepskin, besides a cowl or hood to protect 
them from beholding vanity;. they lived chiefly on vegetables, 
walked out two and two, and when they returned home, were for¬ 
bidden to speak of what they had heard. 

When their minds, in spite of all this fencing off from the 
world, wandered back to it, they tried to curb them by discipline. 
Some began to wear crosses, chains, and collars of heavy iron; 
but these could not chain the mind. Some passed years without 
speaking, days without food, and nights without sleep; others 
spent their energies better, and employed themselves day after 
day in copying manuscripts; and the best fruit of their labours 
was the multiplication of copies of the Scriptures. It is certain 
that many received them into their hearts as they copied them, 
and were thus kept pure,^^ in spite of the folly and corruption 
of the system under which they lived. 

It was the rule of the monks to pay blind submission to the 
abbot of their monastery. If he told them to water a barren 
staff for years, they obeyed as if they expected it to grow into 
a living tree! 

At first, these monasteries were places which the monks might 
enter or quit as they pleased; but this soon ceased, and they be¬ 
came prisons which never yielded up their prey. The abbot, 
who heard their daily confession of sin, controlled them in mind 
and body, punished them, and directed them as he pleased; and 
these bands of men, thus disciplined, became very powerful, and 
established an influence, by no means wholesome, over the Church 
of God. 

You have heard, perhaps, of Alaric the king of the Goths, 
who in the fifth century came down with his mighty arm upon 
Rome, and extorted from it a ransom worthy of its enormous 
wealth. Did you ever hear of his grave? His army caused 



106 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


their captives to turn aside the course of the river Busentinus, 
to make it, and then, when they had buried him, slew upon the 
spot all who had been engaged in the work, that none might tell 
the secret,—the waters being restored to their usual channel. 

But that grave shall not be hidden, when earth, and sea, and 
river shall give up their dead. These Groths caused the downfall 
of the imperial Roman power; yet, while this decayed, the priestly 
power in the same old city went on increasing and increasing, till 
Rome in a new form reigned over all the kings of the earth. Leo, 
surnamed the Great, bishop of Borne, laid the foundations of the 
papal dominion, at the time the imperial power received its 
deadly wound. He received, from the Emperor Yalentinian, 
authority over all the bishops of the western empire of Borne, 
and sent his legate, or messenger, to inquire into all heresies’^ 
at the court of the eastern empire also. He endeavoured to pre¬ 
vent the marriage of the clergy, and to enforce the practice of 
confession to the priests. He greatly increased the pomp of reli¬ 
gious services; incense was burned, holy water sprinkled, and 
tapers lighted at midday to frighten away the evil spirits. Leo 
died, A. D. 461. 

To trace, however, the growing development of the apostasy in 
the sixth and seventh centuries, only concerns us as far as protest 
was made against increasing evils, by^ the Church of the Book,— 
by those who still were determined ^Ho hold fast the faithful 
word,” and to listen to the Written Voice of God, rather than to 
the voice of this great hierarchy, which claimed for itself such 
wide supremacy. 

It is a delightful task to follow the pilgrimage of Divine Truth 
from land to land, even through what were called the Dark Ages. 
The fire, kindled from heaven, like that on the Tabernacle altar, 
was never to go out; and it never did. Amid all the destruc¬ 
tions, persecutions, and corruptions, the sacred books were con¬ 
tinually copied and re-copied; and we must now particularly ex¬ 
amine into what languages. 

From the beginning of the first century, the Latin language 
was gradually becoming more general tliau the Greek, and it 



VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURE. 


107 


might soon have been called the language of the Western Church. 
In the early ages, as soon as any one found a Greek copy of a 
Gospel or an Epistle, and thought himself able, he began to 
translate it. Many of these translations were imperfect, hut one 
called the Old Italic was the best: this was made in the second 
century, and comprised both the Old and New Testaments. 

The word of God was now existing in five languages, viz. the 
Old Hebrew} the made for the Babylonian Jews; the 

Greek, or Septuagint; a Syriac version, which had been made, 
at the beginning of the second century, for the Syrian Christians; 
and the Latin, as above mentioned. 

Two of these translations from the Hebrew were made before 
the Christian era, and two after it. In the fourth century, a 
learned monk, named Jerome, translated afresh the Old Testa¬ 
ment from the Hebrew into Latin: his version is called the 
Latin Yulgate,^^ and was pronounced by the Council of Trent to 
he the only one esteemed authentic’^ by the Homan Catholic 
Church. Numerous manuscript copies of these versions have 
been preserved to our times; and now they are printed, and have 
been diligently compared with one another by learned men; and, 
with the exception of a few trifling differences, they present to 
us, in five different languages, the same text and the same num¬ 
ber of books. 

These three sister versions, the Chaldee, the Greek, and the 
Syriac, after they were made, were separated for many hundred 
years. The Chaldee version, carefully preserved by the Jews, 
was unknown to Christians during the early ages of the Church; 
and the Christians of Syria knew as little of the Greek Bible as 
the Greeks did of the Syriac. The Syriac and Chaldee were for 
the East; the Greek spread over the West, and was again trans¬ 
lated into Latin. The Latin Bible was not borrowed from the 
Syriac or Chaldee, yet, when brought together, they all closely 
agree, though the work of enemies to one another, of Christians 
and Jews, Eastern and Western Christians, Palestinian Jews and 
Alexandrian Jews. These are the great roots of all other transla¬ 
tions. 



108 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Tlie copies from these were innumerable : they were copied by 
thousands who regarded them with heartfelt reverence and affec¬ 
tion ; and there were besides multitudes in the religious houses, 
who, influenced only by superstition, still thought it a work of 
superlative merit to execute a fair copy of the Scriptures, or any 
part of them. 

There is, in the library of the British Museum, one of the 
most valuable manuscripts of the Bible, in Greek, called the 
Alexandrine.^^ It was sent in the year 1628 as a present to 
King Charles I. by Cyril, the patriarch of Constantinople. It 
was probably written at Alexandria by Theda, a noble Egyptian 
lady, in the fourth century, a little after the Council of Nice. 
Theda was afterward martyred. This precious manuscript is 
written in uncial or capital characters like these :— 


John i. 1. 


pxH H Ml^oro ck xiox o rocrf 
TTpoCTONeM'KXIQCHNOXOrOO 


(Literally Translated.) 

INTHEBEGINNINGWASTHEWORDANDTHEWORDWAS 

WITH^.ANDGDWASTHEWORD. 


It is so much prized, that the trustees of the British Museum 
have had it stereotyped at the expense of thirty thousand pounds, 
and have presented a copy to all the principal libraries in the 
kingdom, so that it can never be lost. 

Throughout the period of which we have been speaking, persons 
were raised up from time to time to contend for different portions 
of Divine Truth; and one of the most remarkable of these, in 
the East, was Vigilantius, a presbyter, who went from Gaul into 
Palestine, and preached boldly against the common errors. This 
occurred in the fifth century. Let us see what he then had occa¬ 
sion to condemn. He preached— 

Against the worship of relics y 

Against pilgrimages to holy places; 



FIRST PROTESTS. 


109 


Against prayers to saints; 

' Against severe fasting and mortification; 

Against forbidding to marry.^^ 

He was, in fact, one of the early Protestants,* as was Nestorius, 
a Syrian, and bishop of Constantinople, who strongly objected to 
the title of Mother of God,'’ as applied to the Virgin Mary. 
It does not appear that he wished in any measure to take from 
the divine dignity of Christ, by rebuking this expression; but 
he was accused of doing so. The Bishop of Home combined 
with others against him; and, by a council held at Ephesus, 
A. D. 431, he was pronounced accursed, and banished. Con¬ 
demned," it is said, without a hearing, he died in one of the 
oases of the Egyptian desert; and all who held his views were 
expelled from the church." But the Nestorian Christians in¬ 
creased in spite of the imperial laws; and among them may be 
traced some of the brightest servants of God; for their separa¬ 
tion from Borne preserved them from many errors. From the 
time of Nestorius, images and pictures of the Virgin and 
Child" became common. 

In the sixth and seventh centuries, these Nestorians were 
remarkable as missionaries of the Truth : they continued entirely 
independent of the systems of Borne or of Constantinople, and 
had a patriarch of their own at Seleucia. They abounded in 
Chaldea, Persia, and Assyria, and carried the gospel into the 
remotest and most barbarous parts of Asia, and even into China. 
Their manners were pure; they never interfered in political revo¬ 
lutions, and remained as witnesses for God, even when Mohamme¬ 
danism overcame Bomanism. In the eight century they sent 
missionaries through the immense and savage tracts of ancient 
Scythia, or modern Bussia, and even to Siberia and Nova 
Zembla. 

You must take particular notice of the Nestorians, because 


His Life has been written by a clergyman, to whom we also owe a very 
interesting account of the protesting church in the Piedmontese valleys,—the 
Rev. W. Gilly. ^ 


10 




no 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


they yet exist: they have never ceased to exist: they tried to 
spread the knowledge of Christ through all the dark regions of 
the East in every successive century; and there must always 
have been not a little genuine godliness among them. In the 
thirteenth century, they had many churches in Tartary, India, 
Persia, and China; and the pure light of their witness’^ only 
appeared to be dying out in the fifteenth century, when the bright 
day of the Reformation was about to dawn upon the world. 
When we come to the modern triumphs of the Bible—to the last 
fifty years of our story—we shall have delightful news to tell you 
of these old Nestorians. In the mean time, we must leave them 
where Mr. Layard, the discoverer of Nineveh, found them a year 
or two since—within sight of the spotless, snowy peak of Ararat, 
in the valleys of Armenia, once inhabited by the only independ¬ 
ent Christian tribes of Asia, and still the dwelling-places of tbis 
remnant of a primitive church. 


We must now lead you to the neighbouring district of Armenia. 
In the fifth century, also, Mesrob, the inventor of the Armenian 
alphabet, presented his countrymen with a translation of the 
Bible, made from the Septuagint. A church arose here which 
has likewise existed through the dark ages, though it was by no 
means so pure as the Nestorian Church. Its teachers lived un¬ 
married, and adopted the seven sacraments of Rome, but did not 
admit the supremacy of the pope. Like the Nestorians, also, 
they obstinately rejected images and pictures; and this separates 
them from the Greek Church to this day. 

The Greek Church, so called, is in most respects like the Ro¬ 
man Church, though it does not acknowledge the pope as its 
head, but owns in his stead the Patriarch of Constantinople. Its 
doctrines differ widely from those of the Protestant, and it 
acknowledges the decrees of the councils for its rule of faith. 
Pew even of its clergy possessed any part of the sacred books; 
and its people were not allowed to read them. 

In Armenia arose the sect of the Paulicians, the origin of 




THE PAULICIANS. 


Ill 


wMcli is very interesting. In A. D. 660^ a deacon of a Christian 
church, who had been in captivity among the Saracens in Syria, 
was returning home through the little town of Mananalis in 
Armenia, where he was kindly received by a respectable inha¬ 
bitant, named Constantine, and entertained some days at his 
house. 

In return for his kindness, he presented his host with two 
manuscripts which he had brought out of Syria—the four Gros- 
pels, and the Epistles of St. Paul. From the presentation of 
this (at that time) rare and costly gift, we may infer what had 
been their conversation together. For the first time Constantine 
had an opportunity of studying the precious truth for himself, 
and it soon cast out of his mind some errors, called Manichean, 
which he had adopted. He burnt his' bad books, and declared 
he would thenceforth study nothing but the Gospels and Epis¬ 
tles. He began to teach, as well as to read for himself; and his 
disciples instmcted others around them. He lived for twenty- 
seven years, spreading his new opinions all around Cibossa, to 
which place he had removed. 

His followers increased so rapidly, that a Greek emperor sent 
to have him stoned, and Simeon, the messenger, caused his own 
disciples to perform the deed; but afterward Simeon himself, 
like Saul of Tarsus, repented, being converted by beholding the 
grace of God in the noble martyr and his disciples, who suffered 
after him. Simeon, having united himself with the Paulicians, 
preached among them for some time at Cibossa, and also died a 
martyr. It is recorded that he was seized, with his followers, 
and all were burned in one vast pile, with the exception of one 
Paulus and his two sons, who were sent to Constantinople to be 
questioned. 

These three afterward escaped, and fleeing again to Mananalis, 
lived and flourished under the protection of the Saracens for 
thirty years: their disciples increased greatly, and were called 
Paulicians. They were said, in the language of their enemies— 
to deny ^Hhe orthodox faith’’—not to adore the mother of God 
—not to partake of the bread as made Christ—and to have aban- 



112 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


doned tlie Eastern Church, which they certainly had, for they 
belonged to the Church of the Booh; therefore the imperial 
government persecuted them. The Empress Theodora, who is 
called a saint in the Greek Church, declared she would cut off 
the Paulicians, root and branch, unless she could bring them to 
the true faith. A hundred thousand persons are said to have 
perished by her orders: they were hanged, crucified, burned, or 
drowned, and all their property went into the imperial treasury. 

Notwithstanding these persecutions, the Paulicians continued 
to increase through the knowledge of the Gospels. An aged 
woman of this sect was instrumental in the conversion of Sergius, 
afterward a great propagator of their opinions, only by putting 
the Gospels into his hands. For thirty-four years he was occu¬ 
pied in spreading the truths they contained, through every city 
and province he could reach : his own words are, From the east 
to the west, and from the north to the south, have I been pro¬ 
claiming the gospel, and labouring on my hnees.” 

His efforts were so successful, that he was said by the Roman 
Church to be Antichrist, and to be producing the great apostasy 
foretold by St. Paul. It is agreed by the best historians that 
the Paulicians were transplanted into Thrace, penetrated Bul¬ 
garia, were introduced into Italy and France, and, under various 
names, especially that of Alhigenses, spread through Europe.* 


The gospel in Abyssinia or Ethiopia has a very ancient history 
—even from the apostolic age, when it must have been carried 
there by the minister of its Queen Candace. You remember he 
had been worshipping at Jerusalem, and was, as he returned 
home in his chariot, reading the roll of the Prophet Isaiah, when 
he was met by the Apostle Philip, who asked him if he under¬ 
stood what he was reading/^ and he^ confessing his ignorance, 
desired Philip to come up and teach him. During their journey 
Philip preached unto him Jesus, having been sent to meet him for 


S- Sharon Turner’s History of England/’ vol. v., p. 119. 





ABYSSINIA. 


113 


this purpose, as we learn, by the Spirit of God, (see Acts viii.) 
This teaching issued in his believing with all his heart,’^ and 
his immediate baptism j and, it is said, he went on his way- 
rejoicing.^^ 

It is impossible that this Ethiopian, thus enlightened, could 
be silent,^^ says Milner, when he returned homebut this is 
the end of our Scripture light upon the subject. 

We next hear concerning Abyssinia, that Frumentius, after 
residing some years in Egypt, was ordained as Bishop of Meroe, 
the chief city in Abyssinia, by Athanasius, the patriarch of 
Alexandria, about A. D. 330. 

When a Greek merchant, named Cosmas, who wrote a book 
called Christian Topography,’^ in which he mentions the in¬ 
scriptions on the rocks of Sinai,* visited Abyssinia, in a. d. 525, 
he says it was completely a Christian country, and well provided 
both with ministers and churches. Mr. Salt, a modern traveller 
in Abyssinia, describes the remains of ancient churches hewn out 
of the solid rock, the date of which he assigns to the sixth 
century. 

After this time, very little was known of the country till the 
Portuguese entered it in 1490, and found there a body of Chris¬ 
tians, who had received the Holy Scriptures in the ancient 
Ethiopic version, or Gheez language, made from the Greek Sep- 
tuagint. Mr. Bruce, a traveller in these remote regions, brought 
with him a complete copy to Europe : the apocryphal books, were, 
however, intermixed in this version with the canonical. 

You must bear these facts in mind respecting Abyssinia, be¬ 
cause in a future page we shall have very interesting particulars 
to relate of the translation of the Scriptures into Amharic, which 
is the modern language spoken in this country. This ancient 
Christian Church had mixed many errors with its faith; and no 
wonder; for it had fallen under the influence of the Jesuit mis¬ 
sionaries from the Portuguese; and a law had been made that 
whoever dared to translate the Holy Scriptures from Gheez into 
Amharic should die. 


* See page 34. 

io«- 




114 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


But, as we said we would follow the pilgrimage of Divine 
Truth from land to land, we must now leave the churches of the 
East, who maintained their long and arduous struggle against 
the corruptions of the West, and recur to the early progress of 
the gospel in Great Britain and Deland. 

As Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, early in the second century, 
mentions the existence of churches among the Celtic nations, and 
Tertullian, about A. d. 200, says, that those parts of the British 
isles which were unapproached by the Bomans were yet subject 
to Christ,^^ these parts, which were most probably the mountain¬ 
ous seclusians of Wales, and perhaps of Scotland, must have re¬ 
ceived the faith, and doubtless the Old Testament, from Bran, 
the father of Caractacus, and probable disciple of the Apostle 
Paul,* and the Old Testament would cause them to inquire for 
the New, as, by degrees, it was written. At any rate, Christian 
churches were formed, and these shared in the Diocletian perse¬ 
cution, A. D. 303. Two martys of this age, Julius and Aaron, 
were honoured in the British Church, which is recorded to have 
converted many of the ancient bards, or Druids, from their old 
patriarchal but corrupted religion, to the gospel of Jesus Christ; 
and Divine worship continued for a while to be performed in the 
ancient Druidical circles. One of these is at Carn-y-groes, in 
Glamorganshire, where also stands an ancient cross. 

Pelagius, who was a British teacher from the monastery at 
Bangor-Iscoed, in A. D. 400, went to the continent and began to 
preach strange doctrine. Dr. D’Aubigne says, It does not ap¬ 
pear that he had a bad intention, but he had many of the old 
Druidical notions; and, finding fault with the moral indifference 
of the Eastern Christians, he denied the doctrine of original sin, 
and said that if man made use of all his natural powers, he could 
become perfect.^^ This was not preaching Christ Jesus : and the 
venerable historian, Bede, tells us, the British churches refused 
to receive this doctrine : they sent for two bishops from Armorica, 
(now called Britanny,) Germanus and Lupus, who came to their 


See page 93. 




SUCCAT, OR ST. PATRICK. 


115 


aid, and tlioee wlio had wandered returned into the ^^way of 
truth.^^ 

The Diocletian persecution, in a. d. 303, as we have seen, 
drove many of the Christians to Scotland, and to the island of 
Iona, where they built a church, called the Church of our 
Saviour, whose walls, it is said, still exist among the stately ruins 
of a later age. One particular portion appears to he of primitive 
architecture. 

But we must now turn to Ireland;—for that country also 
afforded the terrified British clergy an asylum from the Diocletian 
persecution. 

In the year 388, a captive youth, named Succat, sixteen years 
of age, the child of Scotch parents, was sent into the green pas¬ 
tures of Ireland to keep swine. Hence, as he led his herds over 
the mountains and through the forests, hy night and by day, he 
called to mind the instructions of a pious mother, which, up to 
this time of his distress, he had forgotten; and when afterward 
rescued from his captivity, he considered it his duty to carry the 
gospel to the people of that country, where he had himself found 
Christ Jesus. This boy, Succat, was afterward known as St. 
Patrick, and sainted by the Romish Church. 

He collected the pagan tribes in the fields, by beat of drum, 
and there narrated to them in their own tongue the history of the 
Son of God. Ere long many souls were converted, and the Dru- 
idical hymns changed into canticles to Christ. This St. Patrick 
is said to have evangelized Ireland, and after that period it was 
known by the name of The Isle of Saints.” 

Meantime the state of the British Church was most afllicting. 
The warlike Anglo-Saxons, who were pagan idolaters, slew im¬ 
mense numbers of the Christians, though many hid themselves 
in Wales, and in the wild moors of Northumberland and Cornwall, 
and many fled into Britanny, in France, whose inhabitants still 
speak a language resembling the ancient British or Welsh. 

In one of the churches formed in Ireland by Succat’s preaching, 
there arose, two centuries after him, a pious man, named Co- 
lumba, in whose veins flowed royal blood. He resolved to repay 



116 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


to the country of Succat wliat Succat had imparted to his—to go 
and preach the word of Grod in Scotland. With some of his 
companions; he constructed a frail coracle of osiers and skins. 

In this rude hoat,^^ says D^Aubigne, they embarked in the 
year 565; and the little missionary band reached in safety the 
waters of the Hebrides.^^ 

They landed in Iona; and found the Christian CuldeeS; and 
also some Druids. The poor Druids were now to cede the ancient 
college of their order and the burial-place of their kings to another 
race; for whose sake; alsO; this wondrous little spot of earth is 
very famous. 

Conal;‘the Scottish king, granted Iona to Columba, and it 
became ^Hhe missionary isle,^^ ^‘the light of the western 
world.^^ 

Columba was really a holy man: he lived as in the sight of 
God; he mortified the flesh, perhaps, unnecessarily,—sleeping on 
the ground; with a stone for his pillow; but he prayed and read, 
he wrote and taught, he preached, and he redeemed the time. 
He went from hut to hut, and also from kingdom to kingdom. 
Precious manuscripts were conveyed to Iona; the holy word of 
God was studied there, and many received through faith the sal¬ 
vation which is in Christ Jesus. Columba maintained that it 
was the Holy Ghost which made a servant of God. 

When the youth of Scotland assembled round their elders on 
these wild shores, they were taught that the Holy Scriptures are 
the only rule of faith. Throw aside all merit of works, and 
look for salvation to the grace of God alone.’^ It is better to 
keep your heart pure before God, than to abstain from meats. 

One alone is your head,—Jesus Christ.’^ Bishops and pres¬ 
byters are equal: they should be the husbands of one wife, and 
have their children in subjection.^^ 

These were Protestant doctrines. The sages of Iona knew 
nothing of the bread in the Lord’s Supper being changed into 
the actual body of Christ; they did not withdraw the cup from 
the laity; knew nothing of confession to priests, or prayers to 
the dead, or tapers, or incense. They celebrated Easter on a 



THE ISLE OF IONA. 


117 


different day from Rome^ and tlie supremacy of the pope was 
unknown. 

When the college in this islet sent out its missionaries, they 
knelt in the chapel of Icolmkill, and were set apart hy the hands 
of the elders: they were called bishops, but remained obedient 
to the elder of Iona. 

^^lona and Bangor,^^ continues the modern historian of the 
Reformation, possessed a more lively faith than the city of the 
Caesars; and Britain in the sixth century was faithful in planting 
the standard of Christ in the heart of Europe."'^ 

Columba is said to have possessed a most engaging address, a 
cheerful countenance, and a most powerful and commanding 
voice, so that he could be distinctly heard at a mile’s distance 
when he chanted psalms. He appears to have been a man of 
much prayer, and to have earnestly believed that God answers 
prayer; and in the strength of this belief he did many mighty 
works. The historian Bede tells us, that he and his disciples 
brought religion at that time into such repute, that a monk was 
everywhere received as God’s servant. Columba was remarkable 
for his humility; he said that no man ought to be praised till 
he had reached the goal, and finished his course.” He greatly 
loved the study of the Scriptures, and was sometimes engaged 
for whole days and nights in exploring their dark and difficult 
passages, with fasting and prayer. It is said of him, that ^^when 
any offended himself, he forgave him,—when any offended God, 
he prayed for him.” 

The isle of Iona continued to be, under Columba, as it always 
had been, the burial-place of kings. Its ^^fair kirkyard” con¬ 
tains the tombs of forty-eight crowned Scottish kings, four Irish 
kings, the tombs of the kings of Norway, and the most part of 
the lords of the isles. 

These tombs are flat stones, with many an ancient carving 
sunk in the green sward. Hr. Johnson called this awful 
ground.” In the corner of the ruined cathedral are the black 
stones,” held so sacred by the Highlanders, that an oath sworn 
on them was always kept. Many beautiful crosses were broken 



118 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


or carried off at the Keformation. Spottiswoode says, that in 
Columba’s own lifetime, he founded 100 monasteries and 365 
churches, and ordained 3000 monks. He died in Iona, after 
presiding there for thirty-four years; and his followers, until the 
year 716, protested against the Church of Rome, and influenced 
the whole of Europe. Columba wrote to Pope Boniface, with 
great freedom : ‘‘ It is your fault if you have deviated from the 
true faith.Clement of Iona wrote a book against images in the 
end of the eighth century. 



Iona. 


‘‘ Lone Isle! thougli storms have round thy turrets rode, 
And their red shafts have sear’d thy marble brow, 
Thou wert the temple of the Living God,— 

Teaching earth’s millions at thy shrine to bow. 

Though desolation wraps thy glories now, 

SUll thou wilt be a marvel through all time 
For what thou hast been : for the dead who rot 
Around the fragments of thy towers sublime. 

Once taught the world, and sway’d the realm of thought, 
And ruled the warriors of each northern clime. 






FALL OF ENGLAND’S PROTESTANTISM. 


119 


Dear art thou for thy glories long gone by: 

Virtue and truth, religion’s self must die, 

Ere thou canst perish from the chart of fame. 

Or darkness shroud the halo of thy name.” 

Glasgow. B. M. 


CHAPTEK VI. 

The Fall of England’s Protestantism—Augustine’s Mission—Bede—King Alfred 
—General Ignorance—The Vaudois Church—Early Protests—Claude of 
Turin—Vaudois Colporteurs—Waldo—His Translation of the Bible—Sketch 
of the Vaudois People—Their Knowledge of Scripture—Innocent III.—The 
Inquisition—Torments—Steadfastness—Torments—The Vows of Luzerna— 
The Bohemian Christians. 

In the last chapter we gave you an outline of the early history 
of the Church of the Book, both in the East and the "West, after 
the Christian era. We can now only sadly tell you, that in Eng¬ 
land, in the seventh century, she fell under the power of the 
church of the popes, who would have all the world to receive 
their laws. She received presents from Rome of the relics of 
the Apostles Peter and John,—pretended fragments of their 
chains,’’ and emblems of her own. Pope Gregory desired her 
conversion from simple faith in Christ and his word, to faith in 
the Romish Church and its ceremonies, and he sent the Arch¬ 
bishop Augustine to Canterbury, to convert her. This Augus¬ 
tine, who came to England in 597, must by no means be con¬ 
founded with Augustine, bishop of Hippo, born 354, the son 
whose soul was given to his mother’s prayers, after perseverance 
on her part, and apparently in vain, for thirty years, and who 
was, in most respects, ^^the highest ornament of the African 
Church.” 

At that time there existed at Bangor-Iscoed, in Wales, a mo¬ 
nastery of 3000 members, governed by faithful teachers. Augus- 




120 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


tine first met its bishop, Dionoth, under an oak at Wigornia,* 
and endeavoured by persuasion to cause him and his flock to 
acknowledge the pope j but this meeting and a second one were 
in vain. Even to a third appeal, the Britons said, “ they knew 
no other Master but Christ.^^ 

^^Then,’^ said Augustine, ^^if you will not unite with us to 
show the Saxons the way of life, you shall receive from them the 
stroke of death.^^ Argument had failed,’^ says D’Aubign(S; 

now for the sword.^^ 

Shortly after the death of Augustine, Edelfrid, an Anglo- 
Saxon king, and a heathen, destroyed 1200 of these Christians, 
in the act of praying to God against his violence, and razed 
Bangor, the chief seat of Christian learning, to the ground. 

Iona, too, the last citadel of liberty, gave up her freedom ere 
lorig, through Romish persuasion; and then came a dark night 
of superstition which lasted many hundred years. 

In English history, while this night endured, we must now 
only look for the few earnest souls that here and there awoke, 
and searched the Scriptures even under popish bondage, and then 
turn for a while to the most interesting history of the Yaudois 
Church in the valleys of Piedmont. 

The earliest translation of the New Testament into the tongue 
of the common people of England was made by ^Hhe Venerable 
Bede,^^ whose Church History’^ we have often quoted. He 
lived in the monastery of Jarrow in Durham, and was a very 
learned monk, having uncommon skill in Greek and Hebrew. 
He studied the Scriptures diligently and prayerfully. He re¬ 
ferred the Archbishop of York to Titus and Timothy, for rules 
of conduct to be required from Christian ministers, and he evi¬ 
dently knew himself what it was to fight the good fight of 
faith,^^ by strength supplied from God. 

In his last hour he was engaged in dictating to one of his dis¬ 
ciples the last verse of the 20th chapter of John. It is finished, 
master,^^ said the scribe. ^^It is finished,’^ replied the dying 


«- Worcester. 




ALFRED THE GREAT. 


121 


saint; ^^ift up my head, let me sit in my cell, in the place 
where I have so often prayed; and now, glory be to the Father, 
to the Son, and to the Holy Ghostand with these words his 
spirit fled. 

Could it have taken flight more happily than in the act of 
translating the word of God ? 

Would you like to read a piece of Anglo-Saxon, as it was 
spoken and written in the seventh century? ‘‘Fader uren thu 
arth in heofnum, sic gehalgud noma thin; to cymeth ric thin.^^ 
“ Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy 
kingdom come.^^ 

We should scarcely know this old Anglo-Saxon now for Eng¬ 
lish ; but this was English in the days of King Alfred. 

Alfred the Great, who left behind him an undying name, 
whether as a Christian or a king, was also a translator of the 
Scriptures. His early education was scanty: no master could be 
found in all Wessex to teach him Latin, when twelve years old; 
but when he grew up and reigned, he was called “ the wisest 
man in all England.Being aware of his own ignorance, and 
seeing that ignorance still deeper prevailed among his people, he 
drew around him capable teachers. 

Asser, the first scholar in Wales, and a man of piety, after 
much persuasion, agreed to live at his court for six months in the 
year, and became his warmest friend. Alfred learned Latin of 
Asser, by carrying in his bosom a little manuscript book, in 
which every quotation of Scripture that pleased him was put 
down by his friend, and translated. These the king constantly 
studied, writing them also himself. He turned Bede’s valuable 
History into English, and attempted to translate the whole Bible, 
though he only accomplished a portion of it. 

He was engaged upon a version of the Psalms, at the time of 
his death. He harleft behind him some manuscripts, preserved 
as treasures in museums,' and a most fragrant memory. 


11 




122 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


We shall now pass to the Swiss valleys and the Waldenses. 

So early as A. D. 290, the Yaudois valleys were honoured with 
a martyr: this was in the times of pagan persecution, in the 
village of St. Legond, between Luzerna and San Martino. 

In A. D. 314, the arrogance of Sylvester, bishop of Rome, is 
said to have occasioned the first protest of the churches in these 
valleys. 

In A. D. 374, Ambrose, bishop of Milan and the north of Italy, 
protests against the introduction of images into churches, and 
shows that certain superstitions prevailing elsewhere had not been 
adopted in the mountainous regions of his diocese. 

At the close of the seventh century are found the traces of a 
small but pure church in these districts, which some suppose a 
branch of Paulicians. Retiring from the insolence and oppression 
of the Romish clergy, they sought a hiding-place in the Pays de 
Vaud, embosomed in the Alps, where they might follow their 
consciences, and enjoy communion with God. 

In the ninth century, thirty years before the birth of our noble 
Alfred, Claude, a native of Spain, became Bishop of Turin. He 
was a reformer, and studied and preached the Scriptures. He 
found the churches full of images, and he fearlessly cast them 
out, and the crosses also, ordering them to be burned. . He told 
the people, that if they painted or sculptured Peter or Paul upon 
their walls, and worshipped them, they might as well have con¬ 
tinued to worship Jupiter and Saturn. ^‘The bones of saints are 
no more to be reverenced,^^ said he, ^Hhan the bones of cattle: 
and a piece of wood, even if it were of the true cross, is entitled 
to no veneration.^' 

This bishop was greatly opposed, but the doctrines he taught 
sank deep into the minds of many, who cherished them in secret, 
and handed them down to their children's children. He took 
great pains to explain Scripture, maintained that faith alone 
saves us, and that all the other apostles were equal with Peter. 
He also denied that prayer after death could be of any use to 
anybody. 

This man laid, thus early, the solid foundation of the Reforma- 



THE WALDENSES, ETC. 


123 


tion, which took place 700 years afterward. He was called ^^the 
Bishop of the Valleys.^^ ^‘The papists own/^ says Dr. Allix, 
‘Hhat the valleys of Piedmont, which belonged to the bishopric 
of Turin, held the opinion of Claude through the ninth and tenth 
centuries.^^ 

Through these, as well as the eleventh and twelfth centuries, 
we must traverse what are called the dark agesj each one darker 
than the other, and watch the light, which had been shed abroad 
by such kings as Alfred and Charlemagne, dying out amid the 
personal ignorance of kings, priests, and people. Modern re¬ 
search, however, developes from time to time some bright par¬ 
ticular exceptions, in different countries, most often of such persons 
as possessed and studied the Scriptures, such as Anselm, and 
Queen Margaret of Scotland, whose husband Malcolm used to 
handle with great respect, and even kiss, the books that he saw 
his wife peruse, though himself so illiterate as not to be able to 
understand them. 

Comparatively few priests, in those days, understood the Latin 
service of their own church, and many were made bishops (it is 
said) who could neither read nor write. 

It was about the year 1151, that in several parts of the con¬ 
tinent were noticed little communities, chiefly of poor and labour¬ 
ing men, distinguished from the established Roman Church, and 
who possessed, in the manuscript Romaunt version, both the Old 
and New Testaments, which they were fond of committing to 
memory. Their version resembled Latin: it was this: ‘‘In 
principio erat verbum, et verbum erat apud Deum, e Deus era la 
paraula. Aiso era el comanzament amb Deu.'^ “In the begin¬ 
ning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word 
was God. The same was in the beginning with God.^^ John i. 
1, 2, These persons were scattered all over Europe: in France 
they were called “ Tisserands,'' or weavers, “ Poor Men of Lyons,'' 
“ Waldenses," and “ Albigensesin Germany, “ Cathari." They 
existed in Spain, and even in Naples, and abounded near the 
Alps. It was in the following way that they spread abroad their 
opinions. “They show some merchandise, as rings or robes, to 



124 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


lords and ladies to buy. If they sell these, and are asked, ^Have 
you any more to sell?^ the answer is, have far more precious 
jewels than these, which I will give you, if you will not betray 
me.^ Safety being promised, ‘I have a gem shining from God, 
so radiant that it kindles the love of God in the hearts of those 
who possess it.' The travelling merchant then reads some chap¬ 
ter out of his manuscript of the Gospels;" and most often he left 
it with the listener. 

It is a mistake to suppose that Peter AYaldo was the first foun¬ 
der of the little churches whose messengers thus went forth. 
He was called ^Hhe good merchant of Lyons," and was himself 
an earnest inquirer after Divine Truth, who abandoned his mer¬ 
chandise, distributed his wealth to the poor, and desired further 
instruction. He could not find it from the Papal Church, but 
he did find it in the Scriptures themselves. 

He was a man of learning: he could read the Latin Bible, 
which was the only entire version at that time in Europe; and he 
began to read and explain it to the poor people who crowded to 
hear him; and it is certain that the Christian v/orld is indebted 
to him for the first translation of parts of the Scriptures into a 
modern tongue, after the Latin ceased to be a living language. 
Waldo's translation, or that which is supposed to have been his, 
is called “the Provencal or Romaunt version," which was con¬ 
demned and forbidden by the Council of Toulouse in 1229, be¬ 
cause it was written in the tongue of the people. Would you 
like to see a specimen of this version, so precious to the Wal- 
denses? We shall take it for you from “The Bible of Every 
Land," which is a “History of the Sacred Scriptures," as col¬ 
lected from all sources, with specimens of the versions.* If you 
can read French and Latin, you will be able to make out this 
Proven gal version, for it is nearly allied to both of those languages. 
“ Lo filh era al comenczament, e lo filh era enapres Dio, e Dio era 
lo filh. Aiczo era al comenczament enapres Dio." “In the be¬ 
ginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 


Samuel Bagster and Sons, Paternoster Row. 




THE WALDENSES. 


125 


Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.^' 
John i. 1, 2. 

The Archbishop of Lyons endeavoured to silence and appre¬ 
hend Peter Waldo; but he escaped, and his disciples followed 
him. The doctrines of Waldo, after this, spread widely through 
Europe. He himself retired to Dauphiny. Some of his people 
joined themselves to the Vaudois of Piedmont, and communicated 
to them their new translation of parts of the Bible,—a rich ad¬ 
dition to the spiritual treasures of that people. 

From a persecution raised by Pope Alexander III. and Philip 
Augustus of France, Waldo fled to Bohemia, where he died, A. d. 
1179. He was a very extraordinary person. He has never yet 
found a biographer; but he ^Hurned many to righteousness, and 
shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.^^ 

The Waldenses were a most simple and inofi'ensive people, yet 
their history has been little else than a series of persecutions,— 
so long and so bitter, that the records of even pagan cruelty are 
less horrible than those of papal vengeance. One of their ene¬ 
mies thus describes them in the twelfth century: “They are 
clothed,^^ says he, “in the skins of sheep; they have no linen; 
they inhabit flint-stone huts with mud roofs, in common with 
their cattle; they have besides two large caves set apart, in 
which they conceal themselves when hunted down for their 
heresies. Poor as they are, they are content, and live separate 
from the rest of mankind. Though outwardly so savage and 
rude, they can all read and write: you can scarcely And a boy 
among them who cannot give you an intelligent account of the 
faith they profess.^^ 

They never mixed in marriage with the Bomanists; but so well 
was their fldelity known, that many Koman Catholic lords prefer¬ 
red them as nurses for their children, and came far to seek them 
for that purpose. 

They were more remarkable than any other people on the face 
of the earth for the large portions of Scripture which they com. 
mitted to memory. Scripture was their all: and as the Jews 
treasured the manuscripts of the Old Testament, and carried them 



126 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


everywliere in their wanderings, musing in sullen grief, as they 
read them, on the ancient glories of their race, often, as in the 
persecutions in Spain, winding them round their bodies, to part 
with them only with their lives,—and as the early Christians 
prized the Gospels and Epistles, gazing with intense affection upon 
their title therein contained to a kingdom yet to come,^’—so 
these Waldenses laid up rich portions alike from the Old and 
New Testaments in their hearts, so that they could not be taken 
from them. 

The preparation of their pastors for the ministry (whom they 
called barbes,^^ the Vaudois term for uncle,^^ perhaps the more 
to distinguish them from the fathers,^' to whom the Komish 
Church can trace so many of her corruptions) consisted in learn¬ 
ing by heart the Gospels of Matthew and John, all the Epistles, 
and most of the writings of David, Solomon, and the prophets. 

It was reckoned, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, that a 
fair copy of the Bible, from a convent, would have cost more than 
sixty pounds of our money, for the writing only; and that a skil¬ 
ful scribe could not complete one in less than ten months : very 
precious, therefore, was every single portion; and as their enemies 
seized upon and burnt every copy of which they could hear, socie¬ 
ties of young persons were formed in the Vaudois valleys, every 
member of which was trusted to preserve in his memory a certain 
number of chapters ; and when they assembled for worship, which 
they did with all possible precaution, from great distances, in some 
hidden mountain gorge, these new Levites, standing before the 
face of the minister, would recite, one after another, the chapters 
of the priceless Book, for which they often paid the price of blood. 
Beiner says, that he knew among them a rustic who could repeat 
the whole of the book of Job by heart, and many who repeated 
nearly the whole of the New Testament. They frequently put 
their enemies to shame. A monk who was sent to preach among 
them to try and convince them of their errors, returned in confu¬ 
sion, saying, that he had never in all his life known so much of 
the Scriptures as in those few days that he had been holding 
jneetings with the heretics. 



PERSECUTION. 


127 


And the children were worthy of their elders. When a num¬ 
ber of doctors were sent among them from the Sorbonne at Paris, 
one of these owned that he had understood more of the doctrines 
of salvation from the answers of the little children, in their cate¬ 
chisms, than by all the disputations he had ever heard. 

Bernard says of them, that they “ actually defended their here¬ 
sies by the words of Christ and his apostles.Beneirius, the in¬ 
quisitor, their bitter enemy, had, alas ! been one of their commu¬ 
nity for seventeen years, and, afterward turning against them, 
well knew how and where to direct his malice; yet even he can 
witness nothing worse against them than that ‘Hhey instruct those 
among them who are teachable and eloquent, to get by heart the 
words of the Gospels, adorning their sect with the goodly words 
of the apostles also, that the doctrines they teach may be accounted 
sound. 

Upon this Church of the Book came down, for century after 
century, the heaviest vengeance of the Church of Borne, for they 
rejected all her ordinances, disbelieved all her miracles, and said 
she was the Babylon described in the Bevelation, maintaining 
also, that we ought to believe that the Holy Scriptures alone con¬ 
tain all things necessary to our salvation. 

On them, therefore, fell the full storm of the anger of Innocent 
III., who was pope at that time. For the sake of crushing this 
little church in the mountains, he established the Inquisition, and 
proclaimed a crusade against all who held their doctrines, which, 
indeed, were rapidly extending. The pure faith, cradled in ^ the 
Alps, was carried down into the surrounding plains; multitudes 
in northern Italy, along the Bhine, through the south of France, 
and within the borders of Spain, walked by the blessed light of 
Scripture, working with their hands at the loom also. This was 
the church that did its duty to the world; and it was going on 
peacefully, conquering and to conquer, when Borne perceived her 
own danger, and summoned all the kings, who laid their swords 
and treasures at her feet, to engage with her to cut off these people 
from the earth, and put out their light for ever. 

This, however, was no easy task : above 800,000 of them were 


I 



128 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


scattered over Europe. It took 300 years to burn, to slay, and to 
destroy them ; and, great as was the slaughter, frightful the tor¬ 
tures inflicted, they lived on; they are living to this day. The 
doctrines of the Waldenses were conveyed from France into 
England, at the time when the English were masters of Guienne, 
and were uttered in the thunders of their own AViclif against the 
same papal domination. 

The snowy peaks of the Alps have been witnesses to thousands 
of murders. The people very often suffered for their faith with¬ 
out resistance; but sometimes, armed with wooden crossbows, the 
men defended the narrow passes of their valleys, and repulsed 
their enemies, while the poor women and children on their knees 
entreated the Lord to protect his people and preserve their liberty: 
and even then their language was, I will not trust in my bow.^^ 

Occasionally they defended themselves with such courage and 
success, that for a little while their persecutors left the coimtry. 
The people had hitherto only the New Testament, and some books 
of the Old, translated into the Waldensian tongue, of which we 
gave you a specimen; but, in 1535, they also participated in the 
beneflts of the Reformation, and possessed themselves of the whole 
Bible in a printed form. Their universal spirit spoke in the words 
of their heroic pastor, Geofiry Yaraille : You will sooner want 
wood wherewith to burn us, .than men ready to burn in witness of 
their faith : from day to day we multiply, and the word of God 
endureth for ever.^^ 

Flayed alive, and then crushed with heavy stones, cast down 
from towers, their flesh shredded with iron whips, and then beaten 
to death with lighted brands, starved in the prisons, suffocated in 
vast numbers even in their caves of refuge, mothers and children 
driven up by hundreds to perish in the upper snows, their flesh 
cut alive from their bones, their bones broken between iron bars, 
their infants hurled from the heights, or dashed against the rocks, 
and their brains eaten by their murderers V’ “ The tyrants of all 
past times and ages contrived nothing, in comparison with these 
persecutions of the Vaudois) that might be called barbarous and 
’nhuman.’^ This was the language of the remonstrance made, 



THE BOHEMIAN CHRISTIANS. 


129 


we rejoice to say, by the Commonwealth of England to the Duke 
of Savoy. 

We must close our sketch of their bitter history with one scene, 
which took place on the 21st of January, 1561, in the valley of 
Luzerna. The evening before, a proclamation had been published, 
that within twenty-four hours the inhabitants must decide on going 
to mass, or be subjected to fire, to sword, to cord,—the pope’s 
three arguments,—and the inhabitants of two valleys met to con¬ 
sider what should be done. In the midst of the kneeling people, 
their ministers pi onounced these words : “ We here promise, our 
hands on the Bible, and in the solemn presence of God, to main¬ 
tain the Bible whole and alone, though it be at the peril of our 
lives, in order that we may transmit it to our children, pure as 
we received it from our fathers. And we also promise help to 
our persecuted brothers, not relying upon man, but upon God.’^ 

The next morning they rushed to the Protestant church, which 
the papists had filled with images, crosses, and beads, and, like 
Claude of Turin, threw them into the street, and trampled them 
under foot. We must not stay to tell of their further baptism 
of blood, but merely mention, that 130 years afterward, when 
they returned to the valleys from which they had been exiled, 
they met again on this very spot, the hill of Sibaond, and renewed 
the same oath to God, and to each other.* 


We do not forget the Bohemian Christians, or the United 
Brethren ; they too were miserably persecuted. They said truly, 
that the rack was their breakfast, and the flames their dinner. 
They were driven out of their villages, and their sick were thrown 
into the open fields. They hid themselves in thickets and clefts 
of the rocks, making no fires, except by night, lest the smoke 
should lead the way to their abodes; and around those night- 
fire's thc^ read the Scriptures for whole nights together—“ men 
of whom the world was not worthy.” 


^ See ‘^The Israel of the Alps/’ by Di*. Mustin. 





130 


TILE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


And we do not forget the Huguenots in France, springing 
from the same parent stem as *the AValdenses, nor the massacre 
of St. Bartholomew, nor the revocation of the edict of Nantes; 
hut it is enough : you have seen enough of the martyrs of the 
valleys, dressed in robes of fire and blood, and we must pass 
onward and show you their descendants in Britain—the men 
who gave us the Bible—the men of the Beformation. 

“Avenge,.0 Lord! thy slaughter’d saints, whose bones 
Lie scatter’d on the Alpine mountains cold; 

E’en them, who kept thy truth so pure of old. 

When all our fathers worshipp’d stocks and stones, 

Forget not; in thy book record their groans. 

Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll’d 
Mother with infant down the rocks; their moans 
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
To heaven; their martyr’d blood and ashes sow 
O’er all the Italian fields, wjicre still doth sway 
The triple tyrant; that from these may grow 
A hundred-fold, who, having learnt thy way. 

Early may fly the Babylonian wo!”—M ilton. 


CHAPTER VII. 

The Earthquake Council—John Wiclif—The Law made at Toulouse—Ro¬ 
mish Revenge on Wiclif—His Translation of the Scriptures—Lollard Mar¬ 
tyrs—Sawtre—Lady Jane Boughton—Lord Cobham—Black-friars’ Monas¬ 
tery—Site of Bible-House—Printing—Anger of Monks—Use of Monasteries 
—Reading and Writing of the Scriptures at Clugni—Translations prepar¬ 
ing—Gift of the Vaudois Church to France—Olivetan’s Version—De Sacy’s 
Version—Colporteurs—Translations of the Bible extant up to the Sixteenth 
Century—Particulars concerning Each. 

On the 17th of May, in the year 1378, when King Richard 
II. was but seventeen years of age, being the year after the in¬ 
surrection of Wat Tyler, a meeting took place at the monastery 
of the Black-friars in London, composed of eight bishops, fourteen 




MONASTERY OF BLACK-FRIARS. 


131 


doctors of law and six of divinity, witli fifteen friars and four 
monks, forming in all a council of forty-seven great men, to con¬ 
sider how they should put down certain opinions which were 
hateful to them, and prosecute the people suspected of holding 
them; one of whom, and, indeed, their leader, was John Wiclif, a 
priest, who had been educated at Oxford. He had not only de¬ 
livered many lectures on the corruptions of the Romish Church, 
to which he belonged, but he had also spent a great part of his 
life in translating, first the New Testament, and then the Old, 
out of Latin into English, for the use of the people. He was at 
this time about fifty-four years of ago, and was called the 
Gospel Doctor,^^ famous for his disputes with the mendicant 
friars. These friars afiected to be poor, and, with a wallet on 
their back, begged with a piteous air both from high aud low; 
but, at the same time, they had great houses of their own, in 
which there was much waste, wore at home costly clothes, gave 
great feasts, and had many jewels and treasures. They would 
kidnap children from their parents, and shut them up in monas¬ 
teries. 

It happened, however, just as this great synod at Black-friars 
began to discuss the four-and-twenty heresies and errors which 
they had met to consider, the city of London was shaken by an 
earthquake, when some of the assembled doctors doubted whether 
the object of their meeting might not be displeasing to Heaven; 
but their president. Archbishop Courtenay, declared that it needed 
an earthquake of opinion, and a violent struggle to be made by 
the Roman Church, to remove such teachers as John Wiclif; 
“ whereat the meeting proceeded, and condemned all his opinions, 
declaring that he should certainly not to be permitted to preach 
them any more.” 

He was soon afterward silenced from preaching in Oxford, 
which gave him the more leisure for his Bible-work. In a large 
circle of bishops, doctors, priests, and students, Wiclif raised his 
noble head, and, turning a look on Archbishop Courtenay, which 
made him shrink away, uttered these simple, earnest words: 

The truth shall prevail” Having thus spoken, he prepared to 



132 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


leave the court; and, like his Divine Master, he passed through 
the midst of them, and none ventured to stop him. He then 
■withdrew to his cure at Lutterworth. lie finished his translation 
in 1380, four years before he died, and gave one manuscript of 
the Old Testament, written on vellum with his own hand, to St. 
John’s College in Oxford. At this time being, ill, four friars 
and four aldermen, supposing him near death, came to his sick 
chamber, to inquire if he would recant his opinions. Wiclif 
beckoned his servants to raise him in his bed, and fixing his eyes 
on his visitors, exclaimed, “ I shall not die, but live; and shall 
again declare the evil deeds of the friars !” 



Lutterworth Church. 


England, Scotland, and Ireland were at this time covered with 
monasteries, and filled with friars, who wore robes of black, 
white, and gray. The mendicant or begging friars, especially, 
were always gathering up wealth for their church, and binding 
the people with fresh chains of superstition. Wiclif saw that 
they trampled the Bible under foot, by their overbearing authority, 





WICLIF. 


133 


and he resolved that the people of England should have the 
Bible, and compare it with the voice of the friars. 

Being a very learned and thoughtful man, he may probably 
have known for himself, from the page of history gathered from 
all ages, the fact, that the great instrument of human improve¬ 
ment was to be found in the circulation of the Scriptures in the 
vulgar tongue. 

He recovered from his sickness, and completed his work : 
there is reason to believe that the whole was finished, and many 
copies transcribed and spread abroad, some time before the re¬ 
former’s death, which happened in 1384 : and after his death, 
his doctrines spread so fast, that a writer of that day has angrily 
recorded, that a man could not meet two people on the road, but 
one of them was a disciple of John Wiclif; yet these poor fol¬ 
lowers, in that age of manuscript, could, perhaps, only copy parts 
of the precious Book which had been translated for them, which 
they often did into small volumes, that they might the easier 
hide them, for the having and reading of which, as in the times 
of old, people who were detected were burnt to death, with the 
little books hanging round their necks. 

The Council of Toulouse, held in 1229, was the first that for¬ 
bade, in definite form, the reading of the Bible. The also for- 
hid the common people to possess any of the hooks of the Old or 
New Testaments, except perhaps the Psalter, or the Breviary, or 
the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, ichich some out of devotion wish 
to have; hut having any even of these hooks translated into the 
vulgar tongue, we strictly forhidP 

Now, you know the ‘‘Breviary^' and the Hours of the Blessed 
Virgin” are not parts of the Bible at all ) but this distinction 
the friars did not wish the illiterate and blinded people to per¬ 
ceive. They said, that alas ! the gospel pearl was cast abroad 
and trodden under foot of swine, and that the gospel which 
Christ had given to be kept by the clergy was now made for evei 
common to the laity.” 

Until Wiclif undertook this task, no one appears to have exe¬ 
cuted a complete version of the Bible for England. In spite of 

12 



134 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


all the efforts made to deprive him of this honour, it remains his 
own. All the search made hj antiquaries establishes the fact. 
He gave the whole Bible to the people, he gave it without note 
or comment, and he W’^as the first man that did so. 

Ten years after Wicliffs death, a bill was brought into the 
House of Lords to forbid the reading of the English Bible. 
Twenty-four years after his death, (1408,) a convocation was 
held in St. Paul’s to ordain that no book of his should be read, 
either in public or private, under pain of excommunication; but 
it was all in vain. His writings, and especially his translation 



Wiclif’s Monument. 

of the Bible, found their way to all classes, and the latter became 
from that hour the Book of the people.” Forty-four years 
after his death according to a decree of the Council of Constance, 
his grave was ransacked for his body and bones,” which were 
burnt, and the ashes cast into the brook Swift, which runs near 
his church at Lutterworth. This brook conveyed them to the 
Avon, the Avon into the Severn, the Severn into the narrow 
seas, they into the main ocean, and thus the ashes of Wiclif were 
the emblem of his doctrines, gathered from the Bible, and now 
dispersed all the w'orld over. 

We have given you a sketch of the monument now erected in his 


























WICLIF. 


135 



Wiclif’s pulpit, the first from which the English Reformation was preached. 


diurcli, the noble old church of St. Mary, still standing at Lutter¬ 
worth, and often visited for the reformer’s sake; and also, through 
the kindness of its present incumbent, you have the picture of his 
pulpit, the first pulpit from which resounded the truths of the 
Reformation: it is finished within in the rough style of the time, 
the wood having been merely cut smooth with the axe. The 
table at which he wrote, the chair in which he died, and tie 
velvet robe (now in shreds and tatters) which he used to wear, 
still remain. Nearly 300 of his sermons are preserved: they 
consist chiefly of simple expositions of Scripture, and treat much 
of the atonement of Christ and the work of the Spirit. 

In Wiclif’s days, the great doctrine proclaimed by the priests 
of Rome was, that to obtain pardon for sin, penance must be 
borne: the people were to fast, to go bareheaded, to wear no 














































136 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


linen, and to whip themselves. Sometimes twenty persons might 
he seen in procession, w^earing hats with red crosses, and stripped 
to the waist, the first four lashing themselves as they went along 
with whips of knotted cord, which drew from them streams of 
blood. Twice a day, in St. Paul’s church, did these men fulfil 
their self-imposed torture; tens of thousands went on pilgrimage 
to Rome, in pairs, visiting all the churches by the way, and 
giving money to the priests; then the priests -told them, that 
if they would give still more money, they might find indulgence 
from all this hardship: they might have indulgences even for 
murder, lying, and stealing, if they could pay for them. These 
indulgences were sold openly in the market-places of the chief 
cities of Europe. Wiclif preached the doctrine of reformation 
from all this, in his pulpit, as well as by his works. He was an 
earnest teacher of the Lutterworth poor. He visited them in 
their cottages. He was familiar with the home of poverty and 
the house of mourning. While administering the Lord’s Supper, 
he was seized with insensibility, fell on the pavement, and died 
two days afterward,—29th December, 1384. 

You perceive he did not die a martyr, although he fully ex¬ 
pected and was ready to do so. His followers did, in great 
numbers. 

William Sawtre was the first man burnt in England for the 
Reformation’s sake. He was a clergyman in London, who openly 
taught the doctrines of Wiclif, and declari3d, that ^^a priest was 
more bound to preach the word of God, than to patter his prayers 
at certain hours;” for which, and other statements, glorying in 
the cross of Christ, and supported by Divine grace, he was cast 
into the flames of martyrdom, A. D. 1400. 

There is an account of a martyrdom, in 1410, of John Bradby, 
one of Wiclif’s followers, who was carried to Smithfield, and 
there, in a cask, burnt to ashes. At his execution was present 
Henry V., then Prince of Wales,—the “Prince Henry” of 
Shakspeare,—who, pitying his sufferings, ofiered him pardon, if 
he would recant, and had him taken out of the fire, promising, 
as he was already lamed, to allow him threepence a day during 



LOLLARD MARTYRS. 


137 


life; but the martyr, rejecting the proffer, and refusing to deny 
his faith, was again thrown into the flames, and his soul ascended 
thence to heaven. 

The first female martyr in England was Lady Jane Boughton. 
She was burned at eighty years of age, being known to read the 
Scriptures.’^ ^^Her daughter,” says Southey, “the Lady Young, 
suffered afterward the same cruel death with equal constancy.” 

These sufferers were called “ Lollards,” and the most famous 
among them was Lord Cobham, in his younger days the gay 
and giddy favourite of Henry V., but who, becoming acquainted 
with the Bible, through Wiclif’s translation, “learned to abstain 
from sin.” This noble soldier made no secret of his opinions. 
At a great expense, he collected, copied, and dispersed the 
Scriptures among the common people, and even maintained 
preachers to travel about and declare Wiclif s doctrines. His life 
and trials are extremely interesting. He escaped from the Tower 
of London, by advantage of a dark night, and hid himself among 
the Black Mountains in South Wales for four years. He was at 
last taken and roasted to death over a slow fire, in St. Giles’s- 
fields, in London, now covered with the abodes of poor Irish peo¬ 
ple, but which was then a thicket where the persecuted Lollards 
met for worship at the dead of night. 

We must only mention (to induce you to seek out their his¬ 
tories) the names of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, who suf¬ 
fered on the continent for the same principles, and add a word or 
two more about the monastery of the Black-friars, where the 
“ earthquake council” was held. This was built in the time of 
Edward I. and his queen, and comprised a very large territory, 
near the Old Castle Baynard. They had houses and shops within 
their bounds. It was surrendered to Henry YIII. in the thir¬ 
tieth year of his reign, at the time of the suppression of monaste¬ 
ries, and he granted it to private persons for houses and gardens. 

The Black-friars’ church was large, and richly furnished with 
ornaments. “ Herein,” says Stow, the old chronicler, “ divers 
parliaments and other great meetings have been holden. Par¬ 
liaments begun at Westminster were adjourned to the Black- 



138 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


friars’.In 1522, the Emperor Charles V. was lodged there : in 
1529, Cardinal Campeggio, with Cardinal Wolsey, sate at Black- 
friars’ to question the king’s marriage with Queen Catherine, be¬ 
fore whom the king and queen were also cited to appear. 

The same year also sat there that parliament by which Cardi¬ 
nal Wolsey himself was condemned. Here, too, was buried the 
heart of Queen Eleanor, the foundress. One of the priors was 
constrained to pave the High street round about the Channel 
walls, from the Fleur-de-lis toward the hill at Creed-lane end, as 
belonging to his demesne; which particular, and others that 
might be found in the story of the persecution of these Black- 
friars by the White-friars, prove the large extent of ground within 
their liberty. It is very satisfactory to consider, that, 475 years 
after those friars and doctors held their council to cut off the 
doctrines of Wiclif from the earth, and to declare that he should 
not circulate the Bible,—those men being all dead, and their 
monastery and its cloisters entirely swept away,—there is stand¬ 
ing in its stead, within their precincts and boundaries, in Earl 
street, Blackfriars, the house of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society, which now holds its Jubilee, and renders 
joyful praise to God, who has caused it to spread, directly and 
indirectly, in the last fifty years, forty-six millions of copies of 
that precious word of God, and to give rise and assistance to some 
thousands of similar societies, both at home and abroad ! 

Wiclif rests from his labours, and his works do follow him.” 
His old version is very curious : ^‘Therefore whanne Jhesus was 
borun in Bethleem of Juda, in the days of king Eroude: lo 
astronomyens camen fro the eest to Jerusalem and seiden, where 
is he that is borun king of Jewis ? for we ban seen his sterre in 
the eest; and we comen for to worschipe hym.” Matt. ii. 1, 2. 

When Wiclif made his translation, he could not foresee the 
wonderful invention which, occurring seventy years after his 
death, would in the present times enable the Bible Society to 
print the whole Bible, and sell it for less than one shilling! 

In his time, the price of a Bible, fairly written in manuscript, 
with a commentary, was not less than thirty pounds,—a most 



INVENTION OF PRINTING. 


139 


enormous sum, for it would have more than huilt two arches of 
London bridge, and no workingman could ever have attained it, 
with his pay of three halfpence a day, unless, indeed, he had 
been fifteen years in working for it. 

Yet still Wiclif’s version spread widely, even in manuscript, 
in distinct portions, throughout England. The art of printing 
was invented by John G-utenburg, at Mayence on the Rhine, in 
whose mind the idea had been secretly working for twenty years; 
but, being very poor, he was obliged to confide his secret to 
Faust, a goldsmith of that place, who agreed to find the money 
necessary to make types and presses. 

In 1450, the first book in the world was printed, and it is be¬ 
lieved that that book was a Bible. 

But it was a Bible in Latin: it was called the Mazarin 
Bible.^^ It was beautifully printed; and when offered for sale, 
not a human being except the artists themselves could tell how 
the work had been done. It was in two volumes, and only eigh¬ 
teen copies of it are known to exist,—four on vellum, and four¬ 
teen on paper. In 1827, one of the vellum copies sold for five 
hundred pounds. 

These were the Bibles which were said to have caused Faust 
to have been suspected, in Paris, where he sold several of them, 
as a practiser of magic, which obliged him to reveal his secret. 

When the Bible had been thus first printed in Latin, it was 
soon followed by other translations. In 1488, the Old Testa¬ 
ment was printed in Hebrew, the original language in which Grod 
had caused it to be written; and thirty years after that time, the 
New Testament also was printed in its original language; Greek, 
by the learned Erasmus, of Rotterdam, who, while he was raised 
up of God, as. the most accomplished scholar of his time, to per¬ 
form this particular work, would not (as he says) have ventured 
upon it, had he foreseen the ^‘horrible tempest’^ of confiicting 
opinions that its publication would raise. 

It was thus treated by the papal party: some of the monks 
were so ignorant as to preach from their pulpits, ‘^that there was 
now a new language discovered, called Greek, and another new 



140 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


language, called Hebrew, and that people must beware of them, 
since these languages produced all the heresies.A vicar of 
Croydon in Surrey, in a sermon which he preached at Paul’s- 
cross about this time, declared, We must certainly root out 
printing, or printing will root out us;” in which conclusion the 
friar was tolerably right, in more ways than one. 

Printing did at once interfere with the most innocent and 
praiseworthy occupation of those who spent their lives in con¬ 
vents,—transcription of the Bible and other works, which was 
also a great source of gain to the writers. As much reference 
has been made to the corruptions of the system of which monk¬ 
ery formed a part, it is but just to point out to you what had 
been, through all the dark ages, the real use of convents, with 
regard to the preservation of the Scriptures. 

There had lived, in the year 927, a noble Prank, named Odo, 
who became abbot of Clugni in Burgundy, and who was a re¬ 
former in his way; that is, he introduced among monks in general 
more rigid discipline. His convent and its rules became so famous, 
that many other convents followed the same. Hugh, another abbot 
of Clugni, had 10,000 monks under his superintendence. They 
set out well, by saying, that the most perfect rule of life is con¬ 
tained in the Old and New Testaments; and though they invented 
a great variety of forms, and placed heavy burdens on men’s 
shoulders, which the word of God had not ordered them to bear, 
still their rule enjoined the assiduous study of the Bible. The 
monks who could read well were appointed in their turns as the 
readers at meals. They read the writings of the fathers alternately 
with the Bible. The winter evenings at Clugni were really spent 
in listening to large portions of the word of God. The book of 
Genesis, in the long winter nights, was read through in a week; 
Isaiah, in six evenings; and the Epistle to the Bomans, at two 
sittings. The monks laboured with their hands, as by the rule of 
Iona; and great care was taken that, during the reading, no one 
should be overcome of sleep. The reader sat in an elevated place, 
and the hearers on benches ranged along the wall; and as there 
was no light except where the reader sat, one of the monks was 



THE MONKS OF CLUGNI. 


141 


appointed to walk round with a wooden lantern, open only at one 
side, to perceive if any brother had fallen asleep. If any one was 
asleep, nothing was said, but the lantern was set down with the 
light toward his face to awaken him, and directly he awoke, he 
knew he was to take the place of the lantern-bearer, and make the 
round till he found another monk asleep. 

“ Every monk was^ expected to know the book of Psalms by 
heart, and some rules required the learning of the New Testament. 
The number of psalms required to be repeated daily was 138; 
but at Clugni, fourteen were taken away, on account of weak 
brethren.^’* 

These proceedings are really so like those that were customary 
at Iona, that they cause us to look back once more to the records 
of the ancient British Church, among which we find the following : 
‘‘ Before Columba died, his chief seminary, Iona, was in such a 
state, that he was able to speak with confidence of its future fame. 
His disciples supported its credit for many ages, and supplied not 
only their own but other nations with learned and pious teachers.^^ 

From this nest of Columba,^^ says Odo-nellus, these sacred 
doves took their flight to all quarters. Wherever they went, they 
carried learning and true religion, and seem to have done much 
toward the revival of both when at the lowest ebb.^^ 

Next to the reading, we would thankfully notice the writing, 
of the Scriptures, which was carried on in the convents, through 
the dark ages. In most of them, a room, called ^^the Scripto¬ 
rium,’^ was set apart for the purpose. A manuscript of the eighth 
century contains a prayer used at the cocsecration of such an 
apartment, that what was written there might take good effect. 

Sometimes the monks wrote in separate cells, made round the 
calefactory, which was a contrivance for distributing heat to all. 
In the monastery of Tournay in France, a dozen young men might 
be seen in such cells writing in perfect silence; for silence was 
enjoined in the Scriptorium, in order to secure accuracy as well as 
despatch. Many nuns were remarkable for the legible and beau- 


* Essays on the Dark Ages,” by Maitland. 




142 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY 


tiful character in which they wrote. One Diemudis wrote and 
ornamented ten missals, besides copying two Bibles and many 
writings of the fathers. Often this labour cost them the early 
loss of eyesight. Perhaps, during a lifetime, the result of this 
industry might be forty or fifty folio books. 

It is deeply interesting to look upon these quiet sources of the 
world's literature, whereby the darkness of its night was inter¬ 
spersed with many stars, till the dawning of the day in which 
arose THE PRINTING- PRESS,—the tongue of nations, the 
terror of tyrants,—and then the full day in which THE BIBLE 
SOCIETY employs this mighty instrumentality to utter to all 
lands the written voice of God. 


If we look at the first five-and-twenty years of the sixteenth 
century, Lefevre in France, Zuinglius in Switzerland, Luther in 
Germany, and Tyndal in England, appear before the world. They 
were all living at this time in their respective countries, Lefevre 
being by far the oldest of the four. They were all engaged in the 
same work, independently of each other,—the translation of the 
Scriptures into different- languages, each being evidently prepared 
of God as the instrument for the purpose; for God's hour was 
come, and his holy word, which had been 1600 years in writing, 
(from the time of Moses till the close of the life of John,) and 
then for 1300 years made known only sparingly, as copied by 
hand-labour, manuscript from manuscript, was now to be made 
accessible to all, and was to have free course, and prevail. 

We must return for a moment to the Yaudois Church, which 
had hitherto possessed parts of the sacred volume, translated by 
Peter Waldo, and from time immemorial the manuscript Romaunt 
version. In 1523, Lefevre completed his first translation of the 
four Gospels; and some of the Yaudois Christians, in the midst 
of their own deep troubles and persecutions, having some years 
previously visited the Christian Churches of France, and having 
seen that the copies of the Old and New Testaments in the tono-ue 
of the people, loritten hj hand, were extremely scarce, and that 




EMPEROR CONSTANTINE. 


143 


moreover the translation hitherto made needed much revision and 
improvement, they invited Robert Olivetan to translate the Bible 
according to the Hebrew and Grreek languages, revised by the 
Romaunt version, into the French tongue. This being accom¬ 
plished, the Vaudois Churches collected among themselves the 
enormous sum of 1500 golden crowns; and forming themselves 
into a kind of Vaudois and Foreign Bible Society, they had the 
new translation printed in Gothic characters, at the press of Peter 
de Wingle, at Neufchatel in Switzerland, and caused numbers of 
copies to be circulated in France, at a greatly reduced price, among 
those poor French Christians whom persecution had then previous¬ 
ly despoiled and ruined. 

It is this very version of the Bible, translated by Robert Olive- 
tan, and afterward revised by Calvin, his relative, by the pastors 
of Geneva, by Martin, and by Ostervald, which the British and 
Foreign Bible Society is still unceasingly endeavouring to render 
more and more popular in France. 

But there is another French translation of the Bible, which 
appeared 130 years later, and which was an event as memorable 
as the one to which we have just referred. 

It was made in the year 1666, by Le Maistre de Sacy, the 
director of the monastery of Port Royal des Champs. The ver¬ 
sion of Robert Olivetan, even though perfected by successive re¬ 
visions made up to the time of Ostervald, as coming from a Pro¬ 
testant, was never widely circulated among Roman Catholics. 

But in the providence of God, it was ordered, that from the 
bosom of the Roman Church itself, from a section of her members 
who had made the nearest approaches to the truth, and who were 
called Jansenists,^^ certain men were raised up in an especial 
manner qualified for the translation of his word. 

At the head of these was he who gave his name to the transla¬ 
tion, Le Maistre de Sacy, who first put his hand to this noble 
work, during his three years’ imprisonment, on a charge of heresy, 
in the prison of the Bastile. It is very remarkable that Luther, 
the reformer of Germany, (of whom more must be said presently,) 
commenced Ms translation of the Scriptures in the prison of the 



144 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Wartburg. This employment made De Sacy happy in a cell of 
the Bastile. ‘‘ How happy/^ said he, am in being here ! God 
shows me that he wishes me to be here.^^ 

When He Sacy came out of prison, he finished the entire 
translation of the Bible into French, with his pious fellow-la¬ 
bourers; and while they were carrying forward this great work, 
it is very interesting to know what was also passing in the con¬ 
vent of Port Boyal. 

The nuns, animated by a spirit not hitherto very usual among 
nuns, had divided themselves into groups, and in the same man¬ 
ner that sentinels relieve each other at night, in order to maintain 
a strict watch over a town, they had established a course of un¬ 
ceasing prayer. When one group had finished, another imme¬ 
diately came to occupy its place. Kneeling down, they offered 
fervent prayers to the Lord, beseeching him to pour down on the 
translators of his word the spirit of wisdom, light, and under¬ 
standing, that none other than a holy and pure translation .of the 
inspired volume—in fact, one like the original text itself—might 
issue from their pens. 

As soon as the version was ready, the good men who had been 
engaged in it took care to have it published, with the Greek and 
Latin text by its side, that all who were able might judge at once 
of the scrupulous fidelity of their translation. 

They despatched from Paris a large number of colporteurs, who 
spread themselves over every province of the kingdom, being 
commissioned to sell the copies at cost price, and even, according 
to circumstances, at reduced prices. This act of the friends of 
the word of God was supported by voluntary donations and sub¬ 
scriptions. 

The version of Bobert Olivetan, also, which, you will take 
notice, was printed 130 years earlier than that of He Sacy, was 
spread abroad in the same manner: indeed, it is to the appear¬ 
ance of that Bible that the origin of Bible colportage must be 
attributed ,—U work which you will understand, we hope, when 
you have read the third portion of our Story. These colporteurs 
were then called ‘^portes paniers,^^ or ^^porteurs de livres,’^ and 



VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS. 


145 


followed in the train of those poor merchants, whom we described 
to you as travelling among the Vaudois, distributing secretly 
^‘the gem shining from God,^^ in manuscript 


Before we approach that, to us, most interesting subject—the 
full translation and printing of our own English version, which 
was to have so vast an influence on the whole world—we must 
inquire what languages had sprung from the five great roots of 
translation during the period.between the first and sixteenth cen¬ 
turies after Christ. By the end of the first century, the Scrip¬ 
tures were written in— 

Hebrew, Syriac, 

Chaldee, Latin. 

Greek, 

By the end of the sixteenth, translations of large portions, if not 
of the whole, of the Old and New Testaments had been made in— 

Coptic, for Egypt, in the third century. 

* Gothic, for the Goths, in the fourth century. 

Persic, for the Persians, in the fourth century. 

Ethiopic, for Abyssinia, in the fourth century. 

Ancient Armenian, for the Armenians, in the fifth century. 

Syro-Chaldaic, for the Nestorians, in the sixth century. 

Arabic, for Arabia, in the seventh century. 

Georgian, for Iberia, in the eighth century. 

* Sclavonic, for Sclavonia, in the ninth century. 

* Vaudois, for the Waldenses, in the twelfth century. 

* Erse, for the Irish, in the thirteenth century. 

* Polish, for Poland, in the fourteenth century. 

* English, by Wiclif, in the fourteenth century. 

Six of these versions (marked *) you perceive were for Europe, 
five for Asia, and two for Africa: and some interesting circum¬ 
stance, that you would like to remember, attaches to all of them. 

Wherever the Bible was thus translated info the language of 
the pecgglcj reformation ensued, and churches were founded, the 
greater number of which remain to this day, and are now expe- 

13 




146 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Txencing revival from the free circulation of the Divine word which 
at first gave them hirth. 

We have not much space for detail, but we must give you 
some information concerning each version. 

THE COPTIC. 

A.A Bb Pr Aa Bb 3-Z "9^9 It 

a b, V g d e z i,e th i 

Kk a a Mm ^5 Oo Hn Pp 

k 1 m n X 0 p,b r 

Cc Tt Ty $'i> 

s t, d i,y ph ch,sc ps o f 

jJSa CTtf Qo) Zz hh Tt 

g sk,sc sch h hb ii 

The Coptic Alphabet. 

This was once the spoken language of Egypt, but is now 
changed for the Arabic. The Copts are descended from the 
ancient Egyptians, mixed with other races. In this language 
one of the earliest and most faithful versions existed, translated 
from the Septuagint, and it has been the means of keeping alive 
the form, if not the spirit, of Christianity, during 1500 years, 
among a persecuted people, surrounded by Mohammedan op¬ 
pressors. Mr. Kruse, the present missionary at Cairo, relates the 
remark of a native Copt: We want a man to rise up from among 
our own people, like your Luther, bold enough to stand fast in 
the faith, and to reform our church.We shall say more about 
the Copts in connection with the Bible Society. 

THE GOTHIC. 

h tj) 11 ra 

abgd eqz hth i kl 

Huc, nnpSTYjjQR 

mnj “P rs tv.yfw o 

' The Gothic Alphabet. 



PARTICULARS OF VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS. 


147 


This version was made for the people who came from Scandi¬ 
navia down to Prussia and East Germany, and the coast of the 
Black Sea, and who, in 409, took and pillaged Rome, under 
Alaric. It was completed by Ulphilas, one of their bishops, a 
man of good conduct and of great mind, whose own holy life 
recommended his doctrines. It was a proverb among the Goths, 
Whatever Ulphilas does, is well done.^' The most important 
manuscript of the Gothic version was discovered in Westphalia, 
where it had lain several centuries. It has been taken and re¬ 
taken in war many times since, and is now to be seen in the 
library at Upsal, preserved in a glass box, which not even an 
emperor might open, for it is a treasure so much coveted, that it 
has lost all its leaves except 160. It is called ‘Hhe Codex Ar- 
genteus,’^ the silver book, and its silver letters, with occasionally 
a verse of gold, are inscribed on violet vellum, while its binding 
is of embossed silver in this kind of character— 


Amm 



It has been thought that the characters are not written, but 
stamped or impressed as by the old process of lettering the back 
of a book, t. e. laying gold-leaf over some mixture, like white of 
egg, on the vellum, and then impressing the letters with a heated 
stamp, and afterward wiping off the surplus gold. 


THE PERSIC. 

( / w w ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

a,e,i,o,u b p t s,th dsch tsch h’ ch d ds r * 

C b ^ O 

8 sch ss ts t s a,i,o,u gh f k,q kj,k 

U ^ ^ 

1 m n w, u h, t j, i 
The Persian Alphabet. 

The primitive alphabet of the Persians seems to have been 



148 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


arrow-headed, like the Nineveh characters, but the alphabet now 
used is the Arabic. Chrysostom speaks of the Persian version 
as having originated with the Christian Elamites, who returned 
to Persia after the day of Pentecost. ' 


THE ANCIENT ARMENIAN. 


r,“' 



M'2- 



i\£. 

a 

P 

k 

t 

je s 

0 

e 



hP 

\L 

in ^ 

tu 

J 

Ih 

sh 

i 

1 

ch 

ds 

g 

h 





Gj *0^ 

Cz. 


z 

gh 

dseh 

m 

h,j n ' 

sch 

uo 

:2l 



fjvra. 

IIB 


Pt 

tsh 

b 

dsh 

rh 

s 

w 

d 

r 

tz 

“O 

U, V 

P 

^ -7 

k ' 0 

f 



The Armenian Alphabet. 

This is a very old and faithful translation, and is called the 
queen of versions,'' on account of its exactness and eloquent 
simplicity. 


THE ETIIIOPIC, OR GIIEEZ. 

ha la ha ma sa ra sa ka ha tha cha na a ka 

(D 0 M P .C 7 m A a 0 ^ T 

wa a za ja da ga ta pa tza za fa pa 


The Ethiopie, or Ghoez, Alphabet. 


The Ethiopic was once the common dialect of Abyssinia, but 
is now supplanted by the Amharic. We have mentioned' this 
translation in the account of tlie early Abyssinian Church. 



PARTICULARS OF VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS. 149 


SYRO-CHALDAIC. 

o/ob tool 

John i. 1. 

This is the version which existed in the interesting Nestorian 
Church, among the dwellers in the mountains of Assyria. 
Several ancient manuscripts of the Gospels have been brought to 
Europe in this character, which the Bible Society have printed. 
Up to the year 1826, these people had no printed Scriptures: 
they said, We have heard that the English are able to write a 
thousand copies in one day; would they not write for us several 
thousand copies and send them to us ? We become wild, like 
Kurds, for we have so few copies of the Bible.^^ The desire of 
this simple people has already been fulfilled. 


ARABIC. 


\ \ ^ 

Ci 

A 


t ^ 

J 

J 

J 


a,e,i,o,u b 

t 

s,th 

dsch h’ 

ch 

d 

ds 

r 

z 

a 



h 

^ t 


J 


i) 

J 

sch ss 

z,dh 

t 

z 'a,’o/u 

gb 

f 

k 

kj,k 

ng 

1 


a ^ 3 A ^ 

m n \v, u h, t j, i 

The Arabic Alphabet. 


The Arabic is the tongue not only of Arabia, but Syria, Persia, 
Tartary, part of India and China, half of Africa, and all the sea- 
coast of the Mediterranean and Turkey. This version is said to 
have been made during the lifetime of Mohammed, which may 
account for the knowledge of the Scripture he displays in his 
Koran, mixed with such fables as Adam being several miles 



150 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


long when he laid himself down.” Long indeed has been the 
reign of the false prophet. His fables have hidden the true 
revelation for many ages from his benighted followers; but the 
Arabic version is now going forth, no more in the rare form of 
manuscript, but easy to be carried and read wherever Arabic is 
spoken; and it is said the sons of Kedar willingly buy and read 
the word of God. 

THE GEORGIAN, OR IBERIAN. 


6 5 3 ^ a J 8 ^ 

abgd e w sh 

rfv- i It 

i o p sh r s 

'd ^ h ^ 

q sch tsch ts ds z 


CQ O ^ 9 6 

th i k 1 m n 

0 ? -a 3 ^ 

t u vi ph k gh 

i h ^ s X ^ 

dsch kh kkh dsh h 


The Georgian, or Iberian, Alphabet. 

The version in this language would have been very precious 
to the learned had it not become corrupted. The women of 
Georgia are noted for the zeal with which they devote them¬ 
selves to the acquisition of religious knowledge. 

THE SCLAVONIAN. 

Ha Ek Eii’Xrrr' ©c: S3 32 

a b w, V h d 0 sh (z) s 

ETm Hh Vi Kk IV \ JSH/w Hn Oo II n 

ijikl mnopr 

t Tt 0^ cy ^ ^4 

® ^ f ch ot z(c) tsch 

inuj in 41 Ti55 Mm Ii k % ± 6 & E) K 

sch schtsch (mute) y (soft) je ju 

MhAa ©IwOo 06 Vv 

O (soft) psi th V 

The Sclavonic Alphabet. 



ERSE TRANSLATION. 


151 


This tongue was in use among the Servians and Moravians. 
The Bible was translated by two Greek monks, Cyrilles and 
Methodius, in the ninth century, and these were the founders 
of the Moravian Church, afterward sheltered by Count Zin- 
zendorf. 

Of the Vaudois you have heard already. Of the Polish 
there is little to say at present, except that it was made for 
Queen Sophia, who is said to have possessed the whole Bible in 
that language. 

THE ERSE, OR IRISH. 

aa Qb Cc ’OX> Qe pp 5 B h li ti .Mini 
abe d ef g hilm 

bln Ot> pp Rn Sr "Uu 4 n (0 

n o p r s t u ar nn rr 
The Erse, or Irish, Alphabet. 

The Erse was once the tongue of literature and science. It is 
believed that the Scriptures were translated into Irish very soon 
after the introduction of Christianity; and the Venerable Bede 
informs us, that in his time, the Scriptures were read in five 
dialects of Great Britain, by the Angles, Britons, Scots, Piets, 
and Latinsand though the Erse version may possibly have died 
out during the interval, it appeared again in the age immediately 
before that of Wiclif, when a new Testament in Irish is stated to 
have been in the possession of a bishop of Armagh, who is sup¬ 
posed to have himself translated it. He left a memoir of himself, 
in which he declares how the Lord taught him, and brought 
him out of the net of heathen philosophy, to the study of the 
Scriptures of God.^^ 

Although he was remarkable for the boldness with which he 
opposed the corruptions of the“ Church of Borne, yet he was com¬ 
pelled by the troubles of the times to conceal his New Testament. 
He deposited the precious volume inside one of the walls of his 
church, and wrote the following note on the last leaf: When 
this book is found, truth will be revealed to the world, or Christ 



152 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


will shortly appear.’^ One hundred and seventy years after his 
death, that is to say, about the year 1530, the church of Armagh 
was repaired, and the manuscript discovered, at the very time in 
which Tyndal’s New Testament began to spread through Britain, 
in the tongue of the people; and so truth was revealed, as indeed 
it had never been before. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

Tyndal—Erasmus—Tonstall—More—Wolsey—Search for Testaments in Lon¬ 
don, Oxford, and Cambridge—Scenes in St. Paul’s Cathedral, and at Paul’s 
Cross—Deaths of Tyndal and of Wolsey—Description of Frontispiece, with 
Martyrdom of Ann Askew—Luther—List of Languages before 1804—Sum¬ 
ming up of the Narrative. 

THE PRINTED ENGLISH BIBLE. 



And who was "William Tyndal,—the man who gave to England 

its greatest treasure—the 
printed English Bible ? 

There is a book called 
“ Anderson’s Annals of the 
English Bible,” which con¬ 
tains the life of Tyndal. It 
was a life devoted entirely to 
this great object. From his 
youth, he felt he had this 
one thing to do ,—to trans¬ 
late the word of God into 
his native tongue, and print 
it. He did so, and was 
martyred for its sake. 

He was born in 1484, 
100 years after Wiclif died, 
and about a year after the 
birth of Luther, and also of Zuingle. He passed his youth in the 






TYNDAL—ERASMUS. 


153 


midst of monks and friars, and was sent early to Oxford, wkere lie 
made great progress, especially in languages. 

Now, Oxford was the city in wliich the New Testament, just 
published in Greek by Erasmus, met with its warmest welcome, 
and William Tyndal read it,—first only as a work of learning, 
but soon he found it to be something more. That Book spoke to 
him of God, of Christ, and of being born again, till it completely 
subdued him. He felt that he had in his hand the Divine Beve- 
lation, and that he could not keep the treasure to himself. He 
therefore read these Greek and Latin Gospels with many of his 
fellow-students at Oxford. He then went to Cambridge, and, 
forming new friendships, became, it is said, ^^well ripened in 
God’s word.” 

There were two young men at Cambridge, who had also been 
reading this Greek New Testament, — Thomas Bilney and John 
Frith,—both afterward martyrs. When Tyndal joined them, 
they gained fresh courage, and began to address to all around them 
that saying of Christ’s, Bepent, and be converted“ Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 

Bilney and Tyndal left Cambridge in 1519. The friars had 
not then finished their persecution of the Lollards; and that same 
year, Thomas Man, one of their number, who had preached to the 
conversion of many persons, under the great oaks of Windsor 
Forest, was burnt alive for his doctrine, as well as Dame Hawkins, 
the mother of several little children, for having in her possession 
a parchment, on which were written the Lord’s Prayer, the 
Apostles’ Creed, and the Ten Commandments, in English. 

But of what avail was it to silence those obscure lips, while the 
New Testament of Erasmus could speak ? And God so ordered 
it, that Erasmus was a favourite with Henry VIII., King of Eng¬ 
land, who whispered in the ear of a bishop very wroth with the 
Greek Testament, and at the same time ignorant enough to declare 
that Paul’s Epistles had been written in Hebrew, The beetle 
must not attack the eagle;” so that even preaching in St. Paul’s 
cathedral against the book was, as is said, of no avail.” 

Erasmus was so highly esteemed, that he was cal’ed ^Hhe king 



154 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


of the schools.’^ What he had given to the learned, Tyndal was 
about to bestow upon the people. When he was between thirty 
and forty years of age, he was engaged as tutor and chaplain in 
the house of Sir John Walsh, a knight of Grioucestershire, and at 
his table he met with many of the neighbouring priests, at whose 
ignorance he was deeply grieved. He exhorted them also to read 
the Scriptures, keeping, it is said, Erasmus’s New Testament 
always within reach, to prove what he advanced. The priests 
disliked to see that book appear, and said it only served to make 
heretics, adding, Why even we don’t understand God’s word, as 
you call it; and how should the vulgar understand it ? It is a 
conjuring book, wherein everybody finds what he wants.” Ah!” 
said Tyndal, you read it without Jesus Christ; that is why it is 
obscure to you.” Nothing is obscure to us,” said another priest; 

we only can explain the Scriptures.” No,” said Tyndal; ^^you 
hide them, you burn those who teach them, and, if you could, 
you would burn the Scriptures themselves.” 

This kind of talk is said to have induced the priests rather 
to give up Squire Walsh’s good cheer at Sodbury Hall, than 
encounter the sour sauce” of Master Tyndal’s company. 

They soon declared themselves his open enemies; and if he 
preached, they threatened to expel from the church those who 
listened to him.' Oh !” said Tyndal; while I am sowing in 
one place, they ravage the field I have just left. I cannot be 
everywhere. If Christians had the Scriptures in their own tongue, 
they could themselves withstand these sophists; without the Bible 
it is impossible to establish the laity in the truth.” 

He went on arguing with all whom he met, in favour of trans¬ 
lating the Scriptures, till one day a popish doctor, angry with the 
strength of his arguments, said : Well; we had better be with¬ 
out God’s laws than the pope’s.” This fired the spirit of Tyndal, 
and he answered, with righteous indignation, I defy the pope 
and all his laws; and if God give me life, ere many years the 
ploughboys shall know more of the Scriptures than you do.” 

He henceforth passed the greater part of his time in the library, 
and avoided these conversations. He prayed, he read, and carried 



WILLIAM TYNDAL. 


155 


on his translation, and seems to have read it, as he proceeded, to 
Sir John and Lady Walsh, who were determined to protect him. 
He soon, however, left them for the sake of their safety, and pro¬ 
ceeded to London, to seek another retreat, where he might follow 
out his work. 

He found a quiet room in the house of Humphrey Monmouth, 
a pious and benevolent alderman, near Temple Bar, and dwelt 
with him six months, studying most part of the day and night 
at his hook.^^ Humphrey Monmouth was afterward sent to the 
Tower, on a charge of having aided Tyndal; hut he thus justified 
himself: ^^When I heard my Lord of London preach at PauFs- 
cross, that Sir William Tyndal had translated the New Testament 
into English, and that it was naughtily translated, that was the 
first time that ever I suspected or knew any evil of him” The 
worthy citizen was soon set free. It seems he afterward con¬ 
tributed largely to the printing of the New Testament. 

Tyndal began to fear lest the stake should interrupt his labour. 
^^Alas!’^ he exclaimed; ^^is there then no place where I can 
translate the Bible? It is not the bishop’s house alone that is 
closed upon me, but all England!” There lay at that moment, 
in the river Thames, a vessel loading for Hamburg: Humphrey 
Monmouth gave him ten pounds for his voyage; and, carrj'ing 
with him only his New Testament, he went on board. ^^Our 
priests have buried the Testament of God,” said he; ^^and all 
their study is to keep it down, that it rise not again; but the 
hour of the Lord is come, and nothing can hinder the word of 
God, as nothing could hinder Jesus Christ of old from issuing 
from the tomb.” 

^‘That poor man, then sailing toward Germany, was to send 
back, even from the banks of the Elbe, the eternal gospel to his 
countrymen.” 

He left England in 1523, and never returned to it. Hum¬ 
phrey Monmouth and other kind friends supplied his simple 
wants while sitting down to his work in a foreign land. 

He had now entered with great vigour on the two most im¬ 
portant years of his life. He seems to have printed first, the 



156 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and in 1524 he sent them to his 
friend Monmouth, and then removed to Cologne. Being again 
disturbed, in the midst of printing the whole New Testament, 
he gathered up the ten already printed sheets, and fled to 
Worms, where he flnished it. It crossed the sea to England 
in 1526. 

Cochloeus, that enemy who had desired to strangle it in its 
birth at Cologne, wrote home to King Henry and the bishops, to 
watch closely all the ports against the entrance of ‘Hhe pernicious 
book;’' while the Bishop of London, having gained possession 
of one of the copies, took care to tell the people, in case they met 
with such a book, that he had found in it upward of 2000 errors 
and heresies. Moreover, he at once entered into a secret specu¬ 
lation to buy it up through a merchant named Packington, say¬ 
ing, ‘‘Gentle Master Packington, do your diligence and get them, 
and I will pay for them whatsoever they cost you; for the books 
are naughty, and I intend surely to destroy them all, and to burn 
them at Paul’s-cross.” 

So you see the Roman Church burnt ??ie}i, and dones, and hooks, 
but all to no purpose. William Tyndal, understanding this pur¬ 
pose of Bishop Tonstall, sold him the books, saying, “I shall 
gette moneye of him for these bokes to bryng myself out of debt, 
and the whole world shall cry out at the burnninge of God’s 
worde, and the overplus of the moneye that shall remain to me 
shall make me more studious, to correct againe, and newly to im¬ 
print the same.” And so forward went the bargain: the bishop 
had the books; Packington had the thanks; and Tyndal had the 
money; and afterward more New Testaments came thick and 
threefold into England. 

The more these New Testaments were suppressed, the greater 
was the desire of men to possess them, and to examine their con¬ 
tents, and this in spite of punishment. The sentence on John 
l^yndal, a merchant of London, and brother to William, by Sir 
Thomas More, was, “that he should be set upon a horse with his 
face to the tail, and have a paper pinned upon his head, and 
many sheets of New Testaments sewn to his cloak, to be after- 



SIR THOMAS MORE. 


15T 


ward thrown into a great fire kindled in Cheapside, and then pay 
to the king a fine which should ruin hini.^^ 

What would the citizens of London think now, if they saw one 
of its wealthy and honourable merchants thus treated for having 
a New Testament in his possession? 

Tyndal’s own words about the persecution raised were,—^^In 
burnninge the New Testament, they did none other thing than I 
looked for: no more shall they do, if they burnne me also, if it 
be God’s will that it shall be so. I purpose, with God’s help, to 
maintain unto the death, if need be; and therefore, all Christian 
men and women, praye that the icorde of God may he unhounde 
and runne to and fro among his people: Amen.” 

The great Lord Chancellor More published seven large volumes 
against Tyndal. He held the error of the ancient Pharisees, that 
the Hible did not contain the whole revealed will of God, but that 
the traditions of the church are of as great authority; and he 
said that Satan had marked both Luther and Tyndal with an H” 
in the forehead, for denying it, ^‘with a faire hotte irone, fetched 
out of the flames of hell.” These are the very words of the 
friend of Erasmus,—the learned, witty, and eloquent Sir Thomas 
More. Tyndal only answered him, that the written word of God 
contains all his revealed will, perfect as its Divine Author; and 
that ‘Gf any man add to it, or take away from it, God shall take 
away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city, and ^ 
from the things that are written in the book.” 

The clergy, delighted with More, their champion, pressed upon 
him the acceptance of five thousand pounds. He was a noble- 
minded man, and refused to accept a penny of it; and he seems 
to have foreseen that the ^‘New Learning,” as he called it, would 
eventually prevail. He himself chose a violent death rather than 
deny his conscience concerning King Henry’s second marriage; 
and, in reviewing his life in comparison with Tyndal’s, one can¬ 
not but discern so much that is similarly great in their characters, 
that, had their souls been truly and intimately known to each 
other, we are ready to believe they would have been united in 
the bonds of the highest friendship, and that when More gave up 

14 



158 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


to his ^'^dear daughter Margaret/^ on her visiting him in prison, 
the knotted whip with which he had chastised himself from his 
youth, and the hair shirt he had worn constantly to aggravate the 
stripes, he had (enlightened by the reading of the forbidden New 
Testament) seen the way to heaven clear, through Christ alone, 
and renounced his faith in penance and self-torture. If so, he 
must have had much to forgive himself with regard to Tyndal 
and many others.* 

In the year 1527, great rains having fallen at the seed-time, 
bread became extremely dear, and it was necessary to import 
corn. The merchants who did this, brought with them also 500 
copies of Tyndabs New Testament, secretly, which was the fourth 
edition that reached England. Wolsey, the prime minister, be¬ 
came aware that many were earnestly reading them, and resolved 
to make search suddenly, and at one time, in London, Oxford, 
and Cambridge. 

In London he found that a certain Thomas Garrett, curate of 
All-Hallows, in Honey-lane, Cheapside, was a receiver and distri¬ 
buter of these New Testaments, and that he had even then gone 
down to Oxford to make sale of them there. He was soon seized, 
and in the safe keeping of his enemies. Let us, meanwhile, look 
into the chamber from which he had gone forth in Oxford, and 
see there Anthony Dalaber, one of the student’s devotedly attached 
to him. 

When he was gone forth down the stairs from my chamber,” 
says Dalaber, I shut the door, and went into my study, and took 
the New Testament in my bands, kneeled down upon my knees, 
and with many a bitter sigh and salt tear, I read over the 10th 
chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, (in which Christ tells his early disci¬ 
ples of all they would have to suffer for his sake.) And when I 
had so done, with fervent prayer I did commit to God that dearly- 
beloved brother Garrett, and prayed also that he would endue that 
tender and lately-born little flock in Oxford, with all godly patience, 
to bear Christ’s heavy cross, which I now saw was presently to be 

Sir Thomas More was beheaded on the 6th of July, 1535, the year before 
the martyrdom of Tyndal. 




GARRETT—DALABER. 


159 


laid upon their young and weak backs,—unable to bear so huge a 
burden, without the great help of his Holy Spirit. This done, I 
laid aside my hook mfe” 

This Garrett and this Dabaler were made to carry a fagot, in 
open procession, from St. Mary’s to Cardinal College, and com¬ 
pelled to cast their books into the largo fire which had been kin¬ 
dled at the meeting of four ways to consume them. They were 
then imprisoned in Osney Isle. The crown of martyrdom awaited 
Garrett, but not for sixteen years afterward. He and Dr. Barnes 
were consumed in the same flames, in 1540. 

Eighteen young men besides these were captured in the secret 
search for New Testaments at Oxford : among them was Eryth, 
the especial friend of Tyndal. He appears, like his friend, to 
have availed himself of the advantages of both universities. The 
prohibited books had been found under the flooring of their rooms; 
and, as a punishment, they were all immured in a deep cell under 
Cardinal College, the common keeping-place for their salt fish,— 
a noisome dungeon, where the air and the food together proved 
fatal to four of them. The rest were kept in this miserable abode 
from the beginning of March till the middle of August, eating 
nothing but salt fish: the names of those who died were Clarke, 
Sumner, Bailey, and Goodman : their record is in heaven ! And 
we may believe that it was given them, according to Anthony 
Dalaber’s prayer, quietly with all godly patience to bear Christ’s 
heavy cross, by the great help of his Holy Spirit, and to receive 
from him their crown.” 

Now, let us see what were the fruits of the search at Cambridge. 
You remember Thomas Bilney, who, ten years before, had been 
reading, with Tyndal, Erasmus’s Greek Testament. He had been 
the means of the conversion of Hugh, afterward Bishop Latimer, 
and Dr. Barnes; for it is a very remarkable feature belonging to 
the love of the word of God, that neither a man nor a child can 
love it alone. He who has tasted a pure fountain,—he who has 
looked upon a land of promise, must say to others, Come and 
see it.” 

No one ever loved the Bible, and suffered from reading it, but 



160 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


he caused some one or more besides himself to love it and suffer 
for it too. It was long before the persecutors perceived, that the 
more men they persecuted, and the more books they burned, the 
greater torch they kindled in England. In these modern times, 
even papists, if enlightened, see with their champion, Dr. Geddes, 
that “ burning suspicious books is the readiest way to make more 
of them, as persecuting for any kind of religion is the surest 
means of spreading it.’^ 

The sergeant-at-arms arrived at Cambridge to make search for 
English New Testaments. God be praised,’^ says Foxe, the 
books were conveyed away from the thirty suspected rooms.^^ He 
found therefore no hooks, but carried off to London Dr. Barnes, 
who had greatly offended the Cardinal Wolsey by speaking against 
his golden shoes and scarlet gloves. 

He was made to bear a fagot at St. Paul’s-cross, and, for the 
time, was so far compelled, by fear and bad advisers, as to abjure 
what he had said, rather than burn, though he was burned, as you 
have been told, sixteen years afterward. 

Shall we try and fancy St. Paul’s and its neighbournood at the 
era of the Deformation ? We must shut our eyes, and bid the 
present mighty dome vanish away. There is a Gothic cathedral in 
its place, whose bold and elegant spire seems to pierce the sky. 
It is worthily called a famous building,” and arose in the middle 
of the twelfth century, over the ruins of a still older church, 
which had been burned in the first year of King Stephen, at a time 
when boys stole apples out of the orchards in Paternoster row and 
Ivy-lane, 

This original church had been built, by Ethelbert, in 610, again 
on the ruins of a temple raised to Diana in the time of the 
Homans, whose funeral urns have been found in the churchyard; 
so that we seem scarcely able to go back to the time when there 
was not a temple raised for worship, pagan or Christian, on 
this spot. 

The St. Paul’s of the Deformation looked down, as now, from 
the top of Ludgate-hill, upon the smaller churches, and on the 
rich convents within the city’s bounds,—on St. Bartholomew’s, 



OLD ST. Paul’s cathedral. 


161 



Old St. Paul’s Cathedral. 

in Smithfield; on tlie Gray-friars, in Newgate-street; on the Black- 
friars, the White-friars, the Austin-friars, and the Crutched-friars, 
from whose monasteries issued the men in sad-coloured robes, who 
might be seen in every street mingling with the gayer multitude. 

People were accustomed in those days to meet in St. Paul’s 
cathedral to transact their business. The sergeant-at-law, in his 
scarlet robe, white furred hood and coif on his head, gave his 
advices to his clients there. Each sergeant had his pillar in St. 
Paul’s, and made his notes upon his knee; and the old church 
was often the scene of most riotous conflict. 

This it also was when Bishop Courtenay had cited Wiclif to 
defend himself in this cathedral, which was densely crowded by 
the people. Lord Percy and John of Gaunt could scarcely secure 
an avenue of entrance for the reformer: these were his avowed 
friends, and Courtenay began to quarrel with them. Wiclif was 
a silent spectator, John of Gaunt claiming for him a seat, Courte¬ 
nay saying he should not sit there ,—‘‘ each party so excelling,” 
says the quaint old John Foxe, in bawling and railing, threaten- 




162 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


ing and menacing, that, without doing any thing, the council was 
broken up before nine of the clock.^’ 

We must show you another scene in St. Paul’s. On Sunday, 
the 11th of February, 1526, there was to be seen, Fisher, bishop 
of Rochester, in the pulpit, set to preach against Luther and Dr. 
Barnes; and there sat Wolsey, in all his glory, on a scaffold at 
the top of the stairs, among abbots and priors and mitred bishops 
in gowns of satin and damask, and Wolsey in his robes of purple, 
with his golden shoes and scarlet gloves—all beneath a canopy 
of cloth of gold. 

Before the pulpit, within the rails, stood great baskets full of 
books—the books gathered up from the search in London, Ox¬ 
ford, and Cambridge—ready to be burnt in the great fire before 
the crucifix, at the north gate of St. Paul’s. 

After the sermon, the heretics were to go three times round 
the blazing fire, with a fagot on their backs, and were to cast in 
the books. Thus Testament after Testament was consumed, 
angels and men looking on at the deed. Burnet, the historian, 
says : This burning had a hateful appearance in it; and the 
people thence concluded that their church and those books taught 
different things, whereby their desire of reading the New Testa¬ 
ment was increased.” 

This was a day to which Wolsey had looked forward for three 
years. The preacher, Fisher, announced to the people how many 
days of pardon and indulgence were accorded to all those who 
were present at that sermon, and afterward the cardinal and all 
the bishops went home to dinner. 

Yet, on that very spot where stood the celebrated Paul’s-cross, 
on the north side of the cathedral, is situated at this moment the 
Depository of the Religious Tract Society, whence, after an in¬ 
terval of somewhat more than 300 years, the writings of Wiclif, 
Tyndal, and Luther, with many others to which they have given 
birth, go forth throughout all the world. 

Half a century since, that society could only afford to rent 
one side of a shop, and on the other side were sold china and 
earthenware; but, by degrees, the little one has become a 



OLD ST. Paul’s cross. 


163 


thousand/’ under the Divine blessing; and you who have seen, 
or may see, its fine premises, at 65 St. Paul’s-churchyard, in¬ 
clusive of eight houses once occupied by the monks of St. Paul’s, 
may call up in your minds this picture of Wolsey in ermine and 
purple, once dooming the Scriptures and Tracts to the flames, 
where, in this Jubilee Year of the Bible Society, the Primate of 
all England has considered it Tiis privilege to advocate the 
sowing beside all waters” of the seed of Divine truth. 

From the cathedral pulpit of England’s capital city, he has borne 
his testimony that God’s word is truth,” and fitted to the dis¬ 
persion of all vain traditions,” and has not hesitated to say of 
those who devised a scheme for its general circulation, that it 
was well that it was in their heart,” and that their exertions 
have his heartiest sympathy. May the word from his lips have 
free course and prevail !* 

On the 4th of May, 1530, another scene of burning Bibles 
also took place under Wolsey’s eye. He had begun to burn 
Luther’s books, at Paul’s-cross, in 1521. Three burnings, there¬ 
fore, were witnessed on this spot, which has been well called 
the Thermopylae of the Reformation.” 

But the people still went on reading the words of life. Here 
the reformers preached Christ and his gospel. Multitudes ga¬ 
thered round the rude old rostrum, in seats or standing, while 
even the king and hiS court, the lord mayor and dignified citi¬ 
zens, had their covered galleries, in which to listen. When it 
was stormy, the crowd sheltered under what were called the 
shrouds of the cathedral. 

The churchyard was then much larger than at present. It 
was bounded by a wall which ran along Ave-Maria-lane, Carter- 
lane, and Creed-lane. Within was a spacious grass-plot, and on 
the north side of the church stood the famous cross, built to 
put passengers in mind to pray for the souls of the people inter- 


* See the Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon at St. Paul’s on the occasion 
of the Jubilee of the British and Foreign Bible Society. 





164 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


red in that church-yard.’^* This cross was destroyed, in 1643, 
in consequence of a vote of Parliament. 

To return to the last days of Tyndal. He was made aware, in 
some way, of the storm that was raging in England, and went on 
the more earnestly with his translation of the Old Testament 
from the Hebrew. He was now favoured with the company and 
assistance of his dear Christian friend, John Fryth, who was to 
him what Timothy was to Paul of old. They were settled at 
Antwerp, and Tyndal was chaplain to the English merchants 
there; yet his abode was a hidden, and probably a changing one, 
on account of his enemies. One to whom we are all so deeply 
indebted was living in painful and perilous hiding-places, afflicted 
with cold, hunger, and every privation, in addition to the hinder- 
ances continually thrown in his way, to the prosecution of his work. 

Yet a heavenly atmosphere so appeared to surround him, that 
the messengers sent by King Henry VIII. to entrap and bring 
him to England, could not talk with him, without being ready 
to be converted to his sentiments. When the last successful plot 
against his life was laid, the persons who executed it were obliged 
to bring with them officers from Brussels, for they could not 
trust those at Antwerp, where Tyndal was so much beloved. 
He was not aware of his betrayers, and was thrown into prison 
at Vilvoord, a village near Brussels, where he remained two 
years, and whence he wrote his beautiful letters to his friend Fryth, 
who was martyred in Smithfield. Part of his work also in the 
prison was that edition of the New Testament which he had 
promised to give to the ploughboys of Gloucestershire. 

It was on Friday, the 6th day of October, in the year 1536, 
that Tyndal was led forth to be put to death. He was fastened 
to the stake, crying out with a loud voice, Lord, open the King 
of England’s eyes!” and was then immediately strangled, and 
his body consumed to ashes. Mr. Offor says, that he appears to 
have been sacrificed in spite of the most earnest efforts of all the 
friends of truth and liberty. 


*Penant’s “London.’ 





wolsey’s greatness and degradation. 


165 


Let us contrast for a moment the death of Wolsey, six years 
before that of Tyndal, on the 29th of November, 1530 : he ex¬ 
pired with the language of a persecutor on his lips. After the 
well-known words, ^‘Had I but served God as diligently as I 
have served my king. He would not have given me over in my 
gray hairs,^’ he said, ‘‘ Commend me to his royal majesty, and 
request him, in God's name, that he be on the watch to depress this 
new sect of Lutherans, from whose mischief God in his mercy 
defend us !" And with these words, his eyes being set in his 
head, his sight failed him, and his spirit passed into another 
world, to give account of the things he had done in this. 

He had indeed been clothed in purple and scarlet, he had had 
the highest nobles for his household servants, his steward and 
treasurer had waited on him in white robes, and his master-cook 
in damask satin, as they did in kings’ palaces. He had been 
for twenty years the favourite of all the princes in Europe; but 
he died in disgrace, in Leicester Abbey, and his very tomb there 
is unknown. In 1787, as a labourer was digging potatoes upon 
the spot where the high altar of this abbey is supposed to have 
stood, he found a human skull, with the bones all perfect: it was 
conjectured at the time that this might be the skull of Wolsey; 
—of Wolsey I—who burned the Bible ! It is a fact to be noticed, 
that he thus died in disgrace, in the year 1530, the year of its 
third and great burning at Paul’s Cross.* 

The dying voice of the martyr Tyndal had scarcely been ut¬ 
tered, before his prayer was answered, and the eyes of the King 
of England were opened so far, that he ordered that the Bible 
should be placed in every church, for the free use of the people: 
but his caprice did not allow this permission to last long. 


See London in the Olden Times.’ 





166 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


The scene depicted in the Frontispiece^ of this Jubilee Book 
took place in the crypt of St. Paul's church, four years after 
Tyndal’s death. 

The Bible chained to a pillar is very large. It was called the 

Great Bible/' and was a revisal of Tyndal's translation, made 
by Coverdale, and printed at Paris. 

The reader’s name is Porter: he was chosen as reader, because 
he could read well and had an audible voice. So many listened 
to him, that he was brought before Bonner, and accused of making 
tumults. Bonner sent him to Newgate, where, for teaching his 
fellow-prisoners what he had learned in the Scripture, he was 
laid in the lower dungeon of all, fastened by his neck to the wall, 
and was so oppressed with bolts and irons, that in eight days, 
this tall, strong, young man was found dead. 

The most conspicuous among the listeners in the picture is 
Humphrey Monmouth, Tyndal’s friend, of whom we have pre¬ 
viously spoken. Behind him is seated Ann Askew, her head 
leaning on her hand; her child in her servant’s arms is by her 
side. 

She had been turned out of doors by her husband, a furious 
zealot of the Old Learning,” for studying the Scriptures. She 
was a beautiful and an educated woman, and her history is most 
touching. You see she is here listening earnestly to the reading 
of the Book for which she suffered martyrdom. 

Six years afterward, she was called before Bonner, who exa¬ 
mined her for five hours, and then, without judge or jury, told her 
she should be burnt. I have searched all the Scriptures,” said 
she, yet could I never find that either Christ or his apostles put 
any creature to death.” 

Before this hasty condemnation, she had been nearly starved 
in the prison, where she was kept for eleven days, what suste¬ 
nance she got, being, as she says, through means of her maid. 


This beautiful picture was painted by George Harvey, R. S. A., and has 
been exquisitely engraved by Robert Graves, A. R. A. It has been reduced 
by that prince of engravers, the Sun, through the wonderful art of Photography. 




MARTYRDOM OF ANN ASKEW. 


167 


wlio, as slie went along the streets with the child, made moan to 
the prentices, and they by her did send money; but who they 
were I never knew.^^ 

Then, strange to say, after the passing of this sentence, with 
unheard-of cruelty she was racked, to make her discover other 
persons of her sect. You shall have the history of her s uff erings 
from her own lips. 

Then they did put me on the rack, because I confessed no 
ladies or gentlemen to be of my opinion, and thereon they kept 
me for a long time; and because I lay still and did not cry, my 
Lord Chancellor Wriothesley and Mr. Rich took pains to rack 
me with their own hands till I was wellnigh dead; then the 
lieutenant. Sir Anthony Knevett, caused me to be loosed, and I 
swooned, and then they recovered me again. After that, I sat 
two long hours, reasoning with my lord chancellor, on the bare 
floor, where he with many flattering words persuaded me to alter 
my opinion; then was I brought to a house and laid on a bed, 
with as weary and painful bones as ever had patient Job.’^ 

Three days afterward this tragedy came to an end. The 
burning, like those of Nero, was deferred till nightfall. Then 
was Smithfield bright with torchlight. On a bench elevated 
above the crowd sat that man Wriothesley and his grace of Nor¬ 
folk (who, in the picture, is standing resting on his sword, be¬ 
hind Ann Askew’s chair,) and beside them sat Bowes, the lord 
mayor. 

To the spot, Ann (her bones being all dislocated) required to 
be carried in a chair, and there she was joined on the gloomy 
pile by three fellow-sufferers,—the last group of martyrs in the 
reign of Henry YIII., the miscalled father of our Reformation. 

Wriothesley then presented to Ann the king’s pardon, if she 
would recant. I came not hither,” said she, to deny my Lord 
and Master.” Then were the flames kindled, and the spirits of 
the martyrs ascended to heaven ! 




168 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


[The other three martyrs are, in the picture, standing near 
the Duke of Norfolk. John Adams, the first, is leaning with 
his back to the pillar; John Lascelles, the second, and one of 
the king’s household, is earnestly listening to the reading of Por¬ 
ter ; and Belenians, the third, is a little behind Adams. 

Behind Ann Askew’s chair stands the wife of a London citizen, 
apparently listening with deep attention. An aged man is led in, 
leaning on the arm of his daughter, whose little boy bears a 
chair for his grandfather. A blind beggar, in the foreground, 
has also crept in to hear the reading. 

On the right, in the shadowy part of the picture, Bonner is 
the most conspicuous, accompanied by his archdeacon, and Drs. 
Hugh Weston and Storey. The bishop looks vexed at this pub¬ 
lic reading, and a monk near him aids him in the resolve to put 
it down. 

On the left, wearing a long beard, is Gardiner, bishop of Win¬ 
chester, and Lord Cromwell, who had promoted this reading: 
beside them stand Miles Coverdale and B,ichard Grafton.] 



Luther. 


While this was passing 
in England, there had 
been born in an obscure 
village in Saxony, a re¬ 
markable man, named 
Martin Luther. He was 
born November 10th, 
1483, about 100 years 
after the death of Wiclif. 
It is not necessary for us 
to enter into the detail of 
his history, for the simple 
reason that it is already 
so well known. Who has 
not heard of Martin Lu¬ 
ther? the child brought 






MAJITIN LUTHER. 


169 


up in poverty and hardship, singing Christmas carols for a morsel 
of bread, afterward the studious young monk in the library of 
Erfurth monastery, poring over the Latin Bible, then newly 
printed, and finding there much more than he had ever seen in 
his missal,” and still, years after, resorting to the chained Bible 
in the church of his convent, and, while he learned portions of it 
by heart, resolving that he would unchain it for the world. 

If you do not know the history of this great German reformer, 
you must seek to know it. The whole reading-time of your 
future lives might be well occupied in filling up this mere outline 
of the Story of the Book, which cannot even name the names, 
much less give definite sketches of the lives, of all the men of 
the Book. 

It is enough to tell you now, that Luther was raised'up by 
God, on the continent of Europe, in the sixteenth century, to 
struggle manfully with that great Boman system, of which you 
have so long been reading. He was a man of mighty mind, and 
of much prayer, who cast off gradually the worst superstitions 
of his order, and at last, as has been beautifully said, by the 
author of ‘‘Universal History on Scriptural Principles,” rushed 
like a torrent from the mountains, through the channels of the 
water-courses of the Divine word, (stopped up for ages by Satan 
and foolish men,) and carried away with his force those blocks 
and barriers, so that, ever since, that word has had free course, 
and prevailed.” 

This was a mighty deed for mortal man ! It was not accom¬ 
plished in his own strength. AVe again advise you to see how he 
performed it, during his life of sixty-three years. 

Notwithstanding all his aggressions on the papacy, (for he even 
burned its bulls, or decrees,) he died in peace in his native town, 
in 1546, the year of the martyrdom of Ann Askew. 


AVith regard to the 800 years which have elapsed since this 
memorable era, they will come into review, more or less, in the* 
history of the Bible and the Bible Society for the last fifty years. 

15 





170 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


The newly Reformed Church in all lands, with its printed 
Bible in its hand, had its many martyrs. It also needed to be 
purified by suffering; but the king who cast into prison, or 
gave to the flames, men like Hitton, Bennet, Patmore, Bayfield, 
Bilney, and Fryth, should never have been called ^ the father of 
the Reformation in England.^ He was its executioner.^^ And 
he was worthy to be the father of a queen like Mary, who thought 
to quench in blood, once more, the dawning light of Divine truth. 
But it was unquenchable. 

Between the years 1380 and 1804, that is, between Wiclif s 
first English version of the Scriptures, in manuscript, and the 
establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the 
Scriptures were not only translated but printed in the ancient 
languages which were the roots of all the others: 

1. In Latin, printed at Mayence, in 1462. 

2. In Hebrew, printed at Brescia, in 1488. 

3. In Greek, the New Testament of Erasmus, in 1516. 

4. In Syriac, the Peshito version, in 1552. 

These were chiefly combined in Polyglot Bibles for the learned. 
The whole Bible was also printed, in the following European 
versions: 

1. Bohemian, by the United Brethren, in 1488. 

2. Belgic, or Flemish, in 1518. 

3. French, by Le Fevre, in 1530. 

4. German, by Luther, in 1530. 

5. English^ by Tyndal and Coverdale, in 1535. 

6. Swedish, by Laurentius, in 1541. 

7. Danish, ordered by King Christian III., in 1550. 

8. Polish, or Old Cracow Bible, in 1561. 

9. Spanish, by De Reyna, in 1569. 

10. Sclavonic, ordered by the Duke of Ostrog, in 1581. 

11. Carniolan, by Dalmatin, in 1584. 

12. Icelandic, or Norse, in 1584. 

13. Welsh, by Dr. Morgan, in 1588. 

14. Hungarian, by Pastor Caroli, in 1589. 

15. Dutch, in the year of the plague at Leyden, in 1637. 



VERSIONS PREVIOUS TO 1804 . 


171 


16. Italian, by Diodati, in 1641. 

IT. Wallachian, or Moldavian, in 1668. 

18. Romanese, in 1679. 

19. Irish, by Bishop Bedell, in 1686. 

20. Livonian, or Lettish, by Ernest Gluck, in 1689. 

21. Esthonian, by Fisher, in 1689. 

22. Gaelic, in Roman characters, in 1690. 

23. Wendish, or Lusatian, by four Lutheran pastors, in 1728. 

24. Leval-Esthonian, at the expense of Count Zinzendorf, in 

1739. 

25. Portuguese, in 1571. 

26. Manks, for the Isle of Man, by the Society for Promoting 

Christian Knowledge, in 1767. 

The New Testament or parts of the Scriptures had also been 
translated or printed in— 

27. Servian, in 1493 ; 

28. Russian, by Skorina, in 1525; 

29. Finnish, by the Bishop of Abo, in 1548; 

30. Judeo-Spanish, in 1553; 

31. French Basque, at the expense of the Queen of Navarre, 

in 1571; 

32. Lapponese, in 1755. 

Comprising thirty-two versions for Europe, in the common 
tongue, and four for the learned world. 

The New Testament had been printed— 

FOE AFRICA. 

1. In Coptic, in 1716. 

2. In Sahidic, (one-third of the New Testament,) in 1799. 

FOR AMERICA. 

1. In New England Indian, (the whole Bible,) by Eliot, in 1663. 

2. For the Mohawks, (a small portion,) in 1769. 

3. For Greenland, (the New Testament,) by Hans Egede and 

Fabricius, in 1799. 



172 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


FOR ASIA. 

1. In Turkish-Tartar, by an Englishman, in 1666. 

2. Karaite-Tartar, date unknown. 

3. In Arabic, (whole Bible,) in 1700. 

4. In Tamil, by Schultze, in 1724. 

6. In Malayan, (whole Bible,) by Leidekker, in 1733. 

6. In Cingalese, (the four Grospels,) in 1739. 

7. In Calmuc, (various portions,) in 1750. 

8. In Hindustani, by Schultze, in 1758. 

9. In Bengalee, in 1801. 

In ancient languages ... 4 

For Europe . . . . .32 

For Africa .... 2 

For America.3 

For Asia.9 

Total . . 50 

—completing the number of fifty different languages, in which 
the Archbishop of Canterbury said, in his sermon at St. Paul, 
the society at its establishment found existing versions.^^ We 
thought you would like to know what these versions were, and 
have abstracted the list of them for you, from that most valuable 
work of Messrs. Bagster and Sons, The Bible of Every Land,” 
in which may be found a mass of that kind of information, con¬ 
cerning the spread of Gfod’s word, which even ‘‘ the angels might 
desire to look into,” and which has never, in one view, been pre¬ 
sented to the world before. 

This list may possibly seem to you to contain mere names of 
books and men, but to those who could cast the eye of their 
minds over the most interesting histories which hang upon each 
line of it, it would appear, as it is, a record which will assuredly 
be thought worthy of remembrance even in the world to come. 

Some of the versions have been already noticed. The Dutch, 
at Leyden, was the work of twenty-eight translators, who always 
met and entered upon their task with prayer. Six hours were 



VERSIONS PREVIOUS TO 1804 . 


173 


daily devoted to it, while the plague was raging -round them. 
Not one was attacked by the disease, yet not one long survived 
the completion of the sacred volume. They were all men of 
great learning, and many declared that they had never before 
laboured as they did at the translation of the Bible. 

In Turkish-Tartary, the missionaries while at work had to con¬ 
tend with all the inclemency of the weather; and often, from the 
incursions of the robbers, were obliged to bury their types. 

The meetings for the translation of the Malayan version were 
always begun with prayer and concluded with thanksgiving, and 
every difference of opinion reconsidered in solitude, with the 
greatest care. 

The history of the Tamil version is extremely interesting. 
This language is spoken in Southern India, by more than six 
millions of people. It was begun by the Banish missionary, 
Ziegenbalg, who died at thirty-six, in the midst of his earnest 
labours; also by the indefatigable Schultze, a missionary from the 
Society in England for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He 
devoted to this translation six hours a day, amid the heats of 
India; and the result of the first distribution of that Bible was 
such, that when the Bible Society arose, the ten or twelve thou¬ 
sand Protestant Christians were clamorous for more, saying to Br. 
Buchanan, “ We do not want bread or money from you, but we 
want the word of God.'^ 

Then the New England Indian, translated by the English mis¬ 
sionary, John Eliot, who had first, with the assistance of the 
native Mohicans, to create the language, without any aid from 
books, and executed a translation of the entire Scriptures! 

The secret of his success is made known in a few lines which 
are inscribed at the close of his ‘ Grammar of the New England 
Language,' published in 1666—‘Prayers and pains, through 
faith in Christ Jesus, will accomplish any thing.' " 

But although, when the Society was first established, the trans¬ 
lations of the Bible, in whole or in part, may have been about 
fifty, and it was considered that about four millions of Bibles had 
been circulated in the world since the invention of printing, you 



174 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


must consider what is meant by the words ^^four millions.’^ 
Think first of a hundred Bibles; then of ten hundred, or a thou¬ 
sand;'then of a tho^usand thousand; then of four times that. It 
seems a great many. It takes a very long while to count a mil¬ 
lion, straight forward. But then you have also to think of the 
number of people in the world,—not four thousand thousand, 
hut ten hundred thousand thousand! And what are 4 to 1000 ? 

These four millions of Bibles were in circulation from various 
sources. Many persons had bought them of booksellers. There 
were some societies, both in England and in foreign countries, 
which arose in the eighteenth century, among the separate sec¬ 
tions of the Christian Church, having in view missions to the 
heathen and the local diffusion of the word of God, and their 
efforts, made separately from each other, had done much. It 
now remained for their united efforts to do more ; and the only 
object in which they could all unite was, the circulation through¬ 
out the world of the sacred Book, without note or comment. 
How this idea of union for that word’s sake arose, and how it 
prospered and has received the blessing of God, is the Story that 
remains to be told, and we hope you wish to hear it. 


We shall sum up what we have already set before you nearly 
in the words of Dr. Gaussen, of Geneva; for they contain a re¬ 
view of our whole narrative. 

When one thinks that the Bible has been copied during thirty 
centuries, as no book of man ever was, or ever will be, that it 
was subjected to all the wandering experience of Israel, that it 
was transported seventy years to Babylon', that it had seen itself 
so often persecuted, or forgotten, or forbidden, or burned,—when 
one thinks that it has had to traverse the first three centuries of 
pagan persecutions, when persons found in possession of the holy 
books were thrown to the wild beasts,—next the seventh, eighth, 
and ninth centuries, when false books and false legends were 
everywhere multiplied,—the tenth and eleventh centuries, when 
so few could read even among princes,—the twelfth, thirteenth, 




PRESERVATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 


175 


and fourteentli centuries, when the use of the Scriptures in the 
vulgar tongue was punished with death, and when the books of 
the ancient fathers were mutilated,— then we can perceive how 
certain it is that, on the one hand, the providence of God has 
put forth its mighty power, causing the Church of the Jews to 
give us, in its integrity, the very book which records its'revolts, 
which predicts its ruin, which describes Jesus Christ j—and, on 
the other hand, that that same providence has caused the Roman 
Church (which in particular forbade its people to read the sacred 
books, and gave them in the stead of the word of God the tra¬ 
ditions of the middle ages) to transmit to us, in all their purity, 
those very Scriptures, which say that Rome would be the seat of 
a terrible apostasy, which say of images, “Thou shalt not make or 
bow down to them of unknown tongues, “ Thou shalt not use 
them;’^ of the cup, “Drink ye all of it;’^ of marriage, “It is 
honourable in all;’^ and of the Virgin Mary, “Woman, what 
have I to do with thee V’ 

“ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not 
pass away.^^ Matt. xxiv. 35. “ The grass withereth, the flower 

fadeth, but the word of our Hod shall stand for ever.^^ Isa. xl. 8. 



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PART 11. 


THE BIBLE SOCIETY’S HOUSE. 

THE PRIHTIHa AISTD BIHBIISia OF THE 
BIBLE. 





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I 


CHAPTER L 


The Bible House—Its Library—Wiclifs Testament—Tyndal’s Bible—Cover- 
dale’s Bible—The Geneva Bible—The Bishop’s Bible—Authorized Version— 
Welsh Bible—European Languages—Swedish Bible—Polyglots—Dutch Bi¬ 
ble—Luther’s Bible—Bohemian Bible—Eastern Languages—Persian Testa¬ 
ment—Pali, Hinduwee, Bengalee, etc.—Separate Translations of the Bible 
into Chinese—The Lord’s Prayer in all Languages—The Douay Version— 
The Society’s departed Friends—The Manuscript Library—The Breton Bi¬ 
ble—Wales and Britanny—Syrian, Persian, Chinese, Ethiopic, and Amharic 
Manuscripts—The Amharic Bible—Mr. Jowett’s Account of it—How the So¬ 
ciety obtains its Translations—Their Revision—The General Committee 
Room—The Case of Bibles—The Bible for the Blind—The Sub-committee 
Room—Portraits—The Bible Warehouse. 


We have now given you the history of what are called ^Hhe 
manuscript ages of the Bible/^ when it could only he written out 
with great labour, and much cost; and we have alluded to the 
years in which it was first multiplied by printing, but not in any 
measure adequately to the wants of the world. 

You have, therefore, it is probable, some desire to hear all you 
can about the House of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 
Earl-street, London, built within the precincts of the old monas¬ 
tery of the Black-friars,—the spot from which the word of God 
now goes"*out to all the earth. 

Do you think, as we did, that there are warehouses and work¬ 
shops, somewhere in the back premises of this Bible House, 
where they print all their own books, and bind them before they 
send them away, at the rate of many thousands a week, all over 
the world, and all the year round? Well, then, this was a mis¬ 
take; for the Bible House itself consists only of warehouses for 
its Bibles, of&ces for its depositary and accountant, rooms for its 
committees and secretaries, and a library of the various editions 
of the Holy Scriptures, and works relating to the numerous trans¬ 
lations. 


179 


180 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


THE LIBRARY 

Contains some curions literary treasures. You would jfind there 
at least one copy of the Scriptures in every language in which 
they have been printed, and in many cases several editions of 
each. Here is Wiclif s New Testament, printed in 1810,—426 
years after his death. The spelling is very different from that 
which we now use. The following is a specimen; John i. 1-5:— 

1 IN the bigynnynge was the word and the word was at god, and god was 
the word, 2 this was in the bigynnynge at god, 3 alle thingis weren made hi 
hym: and withouten hym was made no thing, that thing that was made 4 in 
him was liif, and the liif was the lijt of men, 5 and the lijt schyneth in derk- 
nessis; and derknessis comprehendiden not it. 

You may also see Tyndahs Bible in black letter, of which the 
following is a specimen; John i. 1—5:— 

^ tfje beginupncje biais tfje borbe, anb tfje toorbe Iras 
biiti) 0ob: anb tje biorbe toas 0(ib, ^ bias in 

ti)t beginni)nge biitfj (*5ob, ^ tljinges mabe bj) it, 
anb Initf) out it, toais mabe notijinge, tijat bias mabe. ^ 
it Inas Igfe, anb tje Ipfe bag tije Iggljt of men, ® anb tlje 
gjisnett) in ttje barckneg, but ttje barebneg rompre^ 
tjenbcb it not 

This is the version which our forefathers welcomed so warmly, 
and for which they suffered so much,—the New Testament which 
Anthony Dalaber ^^read on his knees, with many a deep sigh and 
salt tear.'^ The date of this is 1524. 

Then there is Coverdale’s Bible, printed in 1535, dedicated to 
Henry VIII. This is the version of which it was said, by that 
capricious king, ^‘Let it go abroad among my people,’^—^Hhe 
Boke of the whole Bible in English,^^ which was laid in the choir 
of every church ‘^for every man that willed to look and read 
thereon,^'—not that Henry continued his permission to the end 
of his own reign, for the clergy persuaded him that the people 
made a bad use of it. By another act which he passed, he for- 



GENEVA AND BISTIOP’S VERSIONS. 


181 


bade the lower classes to read it, but allowed it as an indulgence 
to ‘‘noblemen, gentlemen, and ladies of quality, in their houses, 
orchards, and gardens, quietly; and to read it to themselves 
alone, not to others.'^ Still, from 1526 to 1546, when Henry 
VIII. died, a period of twenty years, thirty-one impressions of 
the Bible or New Testament issued from the press, besides several 
editions of separate books of Scripture. 

In his son Edward VI.'’s short reign of seven years, the word 
of God was read with greediness, and every one that could read 
bought the Book, and busily read it, or heard it read,—many 
elderly persons learnfng to read on purpose. Eleven editions of 
the Bible and seven of the New Testament were published in 
Edward’s reign. 

Then, as we know, in the reign of Mary, the Bible was once 
more banished from the churches, and its friends exiled or brought 
to the stake. 

Many of these exiles, however, took refuge in Geneva, and 
thence, after Mary’s death, came the English Geneva Bible, 
which was but a revision of Tyndal’s version, executed after his 
immortal work had been diligently compared with the Hebrew 
and Greek texts. This whole Bible was published at Geneva, in 
156, the second year of Elizabeth’s reign. This was the Bible 
most generally used in private houses, and was the first English 
Bible divided into verses. 

In this library may be seen the “ Bishops’ Bible,” a folio book, 
one of the two new translations published in the reign of Eliza¬ 
beth, under the superintendence of Archbishop Parker, who em¬ 
ployed in the work eight bishops, and six other persons, himself 
revising the whole,—a work that occupied three years. It was 
published in 1568, and when finished, the archbishop said, with 
good old Simeon, “Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart 
in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy sal¬ 
vation.” The copy of this Bible, belonging to the Bible Societ)/, 
is much worm-eaten, but has been preserved by a new binding, 
in the style of the olden time. 

Then, of course, there is the Authorized English version, made 



182 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


in the reign of King James,—the only one which the British and 
Foreign Bible Society has ever circulated : all others it keeps as 
curiosities in its library, as well as for the purpose of comparison 
and reference. This version was compiled from all previous 
translations collated with the original versions, by forty-seven of 
the most eminent scholars of that time, and the basis of the ver¬ 
sion was still Tyndahs. It was published in 1611, and continues 
to be our Bible to the present day. 

Here also you will find the first Welsh Bible ever printed— 
the version of Dr. Morgan, afterward bishop of St. Asaph. It 
was printed in 1588, and is in black letter. Here is a specimen; 
John i. 1-5 :— 

gr ot'ti'n QUiVy a’r auij: ot'ti'n jtjglr 
a ButD, u ofDlr j) safr. 

2 oetrt* m tJcrhveuat* a Bn'm. 

5 ti g stinaetUptogti pat) p^tti, ac 

ti n( tonaeU utm wv a tonaethptjglr* 

4 ti gr actili tigtogD, au* tglugli oetrD oleunt 
tignton. 

5 Qolfunt a letDgvctialJt) gn g tgtogUbJCh, a'r 
tgb)gniach ntlr gn tl amggffv^ti* 

But now, you must look round on the cases of Bibles in all 
the various European languages. Among them you will see an 
old Swedish Bible, which is a remarkable curiosity in binding. 
A picture has been painted on the edges of the leaves, which 
you cannot see when the book is closed, but one cover being 
thrown back, and the leaves slightly separated, you perceive an 
antique picture of “Christian’' on his journey up the strait 
and narrow way to the heavenly city. 

Not far off, is a case of “ Polyglots,” a word which signifies 
the Bible printed in many languages at once, in separate columns; 
for instance, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, very necessary 
for learned persons to compare. If you were making a fresh 
translation of the Bible, you would find it convenient to consult 
a Polyglot. These books, as you may imagine, are large. Here 



GERMAN VERSION. 


183 


is a Bible in Dutch, weighing forty pounds, with its brazen 
clasps, and cover of solid wood, bound in boards,^' which did 
not mean pasteboards in the days when that was printed—a great 
contrast to the pocket Bibles of the present times, weighing only 
eight or nine ounces, and to the tiny edition of the book of 
Psalms in shorthand, found in this library. 

Would you like to see Luther’s German Bible ? The follow 
ing is a specimen ; John i. 1-5 :— 

3m 21nfan^ mar ba3 SBort, unb ba^ SBort mar ®ott, unb ®otl 
mar ba^ SBort 

2 X)a|Jetbigc mar tm ^Infaug be^ ®ott 

3 5ine T)iugc ftnb burd) baffelbtge gemad^t, unb o^nc bajfetbige 
ift gema2)t, ma5 gentaebt ifh 

4 tbm mar ba^ 2ebeu, unb ba^ Seben mar ba^ Sic^t ber 
^D^enfdbem 

5 Unb ba^ Siebt fcbeinct in ber w^b bie gtnjierniffe 

Ibaben niebt begriffen» 

Here is his Testament of 1524, and the whole Bible of 1567 
He was the man ordained to present his nation with the written 
word.” He was shut up on purpose to do it, in the solitary old 
castle of the AYartburg, where the narrow windows of his turret 
looked out on dark, untrodden, boundless forests,” and here 
he sat down to his Hebrew and Greek Bibles, as he would never 
have been able to do in the city of Wittenberg, to fashion that 
weapon of heavenly temper—the Scripture—in the tongue of the 
common people, without which all his battles against the corrup¬ 
tions of the Church of Borne would have been in vain. 

He brought forth from his seclusion a deeper faith in GoeVs 
word than ever, and with it, as the sword of the Spirit,” he 
cut asunder the bonds of Christendom. This version was, how¬ 
ever, before it went forth among the families of Germany, revised 
most diligently by Luther and his learned friends. They were 
known sometimes to return for fourteen days to the reconsidem- 
tion of a single line, and even a word. Melancthon assisted in 
this revision. Luther’s own copy of the edition of 1541 is now 
deposited in the British Museum. 



184 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Here is tlie version of the Bible for Bohemia—that important 
section of Austria, which will make you think of the poor, perse- 
^ cuted Bohemian Christians. They were the very first people 
who turned to account the art of printing for the more general 
distribution of the Scriptures, A. d. 1488. This fact is stated in 
a letter recently addressed by the Ilev. P. La Trobe to the com¬ 
mittee of the Bible Society, enclosing one hundred pounds as a 
Jubilee offering from the Brethren’s Society for the Furtherance 
of the Grospel. The Bohemian version in this library is dated 
1596. The following is a specimen; John i. 1-5 :— 

51 a )J0catfu ©Poit?o, a to 0 Poioo Bt;Po o S 3 ot)a, a to ©Poivo 
B^P ® 2:0 B9P0 na jjocatfu 0 Sot)a. ® toecp ffr^e 

ne ocincn^ fan, a Be3 ne!^o ntc neni ocutcno, C03 ocincno gcft * SB 
nem jitoot B9P, a ^itoot B9P fmctPo liBj. ^ U to fwetPo \v tcmno^ 
ftec^ fmjtf, ale tmp ge neoBfat)P9. 

On another side of the room are versions of Scripture in the 
Asiatic languages, the tongues of the sons of Shem. 

This is the Persian Testament translated by that beloved mis¬ 
sionary, the Ptev. Henry Martyn, published by the Bible Society 
in 1827, also in 1837, and in 1847; John i. 1-5 :— 

^ ^ LiK i^\ j IjJj! jO dj) 

j] J ^ 

^1 ^ cj \-^ j Cijj 

A recent traveller, Mr. Southgate, declares that he found 
copies of this version in every city in Persia through which he 
passed. Ah I how this result would have cheered the heart of 
that man of God,” as, feeble and lonely, in the garden beneath 
the walls of Shiraz, he sacrificed his life to his determination to 
accomplish the translation of this Testament! How interesting 



THE PALI VERSION. 


185 


is the history of the conversion of the Persian Mollah Mahomet 
Hamah, from the gift of this New Testament ! We will give it 
you, in his own words : “There came to Persia, an Englishman, 
who taught the religion of Christ, with a boldness we had never 
seen, in the midst of much scorn and ill-treatment from the rab¬ 
ble. He was young, and feeble with disease. I was then a 
decided enemy to infidels, and I, too, visited this teacher to treat 
him with scorn and contempt. These evil feelings left me be¬ 
neath the influence of his gentleness; and before I quitted Shiraz, 
I pai^ him a parting visit. The memory of our conversation will 
never fade from my mind : it sealed my conversion. He gave 
me a book; it has ever been my constant companion—the study 
of it my most delightful occupation. On one of the blank leaves 
was written, ‘ There is joy in heaven over one sinner that re- 
penteth, (signed) Henry Martyn.’ ” 

This is the Pali version, the language of the Buddhists of India j 
John i. 1, 2 :— 


93D§6oos^-:)o8oos^-i330DG361cSGoo:)OoepGGeq 

C&OOQOSttXODGSOloo 


One of the Buddhist priests became a sincere convert while 
translating it, and finished and revised the work after the sudden 
death of his teacher, Mr. Tolfrey. The great translators for the 
continent of India have been Dr. Carey, Dr. Marshman, and the 
Bev. W. Ward, Baptist missionaries at Serampore. They reached 
India in 1793 ; and in 1806 they were engaged in printing or 
translating the Scriptures in six languages. In 1819, they were 
printing the word of Ood in twenty-seven languages. This great 
and glorious work was carried on chiefly at the expense of the 
Bible Society. The result of these vast labours in India, as of 
the Chinese Scriptures in China, is yet to be seen in full; but it 
is beginning to appear. The whole arose from the quiet propo¬ 
sition of one man, who was then obtaining a livelihood by the 

labour of his hands, to an association of ministers, whether it 

16 =^ 



186 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


was not a practicable duty to attempt the conversion of the 
heathen.’’ This man, Mr., afterward Dr. Carey, had been teach¬ 
ing himself a language as he sat at his work. God was prepar¬ 
ing him to become the first of oriental scholars, for the sake of 
his word. The first collection, in 1793, for this magnificent 
object, among the Baptists, amounted to 13/. 2s. 6c/., but since 
then the British and Foreign Bible Society have afforded assist- 
tance to Dr. Carey and his associates, and to the various Bible 
Societies of India, to the amount of more than two hundred 
thousand pounds ! 

Two or three days before the death of Dr. Carey, in 1834, he 
was carried down stairs in a state of extreme exhaustion; and 
the Rev. G. Gogerley, then a missionary in Bengal, and his inti¬ 
mate friend, tells us, that the last revised sheets of the last Ian- 
guage into which he had translated the Scriptures, lay upon the 
table. His work was done, and he was ready to depart. He had 
laboured in India for' forty years, and had given to her the word 
of God, in whole or in part, in about thirty different languages. 
His simple faith in the Lord Jesus, and his deep humility in that 
last hour, were very beautiful. 

Here is the Chinese Bible,—the book that may soon, we hope, 
be read by 360 millions of people, who are almost all still igno¬ 
rant of its message. Two different translations were made about 
thirty years ago. Dr. Marshman, with the help of other mis¬ 
sionaries, and of Johannes Lassar, a native of China, made a 
translation, and printed it, for the Bible Society, at Serampore, 
in 1822 : Dr. Morrison and Dr. Milne, who had laboured in 
China from the year 1807, completed their version about the 
same time, and the former presented a printed copy at the anni¬ 
versary of the Bible Society in London, in the year 1824'. 

Each translation was good in its way, and they were made in¬ 
dependently of one another. Dr. Medhurst and other Protestant 
missionaries at present in China, have recently completed a re¬ 
vised edition, comprising both the Old and New Testaments. 

It is said that the Chinese Testament can now be printed in 
China for the small sum of fourpence ! 



THE DOUAY VERSION. 


187 


The library of the Bible House also contains a present from 
Councillor Auer, the Director of the Imperial printing office at 
Vienna,—a specimen of the Lord’s Prayer written in every 
known language of the world, and in every dialect of the language, 
and in every age of the dialect. These large sheets give you a 
very comprehensive impression of earth’s many tongues. You 
can read the Lord’s Prayer in English, as it was written in the 
year 1160, in 1370, in 1430, in 1526, and so on, with slight 
variations, up to the year 1800, which is the last given. This 
collection is called the Sprachenhalle,^’ and was printed at the 
expense of the Emperor of Austria, under the superintendence 
of Councillor Auer. 

We will now look at the Douay Bible, which is also contained 
in this collection, for you may often hear it mentioned, and it is 
right that you should have a little history of this translation. 

The Douay version was made by the Bomanists themselves; 
for, as they found, by the Bible being printed so often in Eng¬ 
lish, that it was impossible to keep it out of the hands of the 
common people,” they resolved to have an English translation 
of their own. 

The New Testament they first printed at Bheims, in 1582, 

translated out of Latin, with notes and necessary helps (as they 
say) for the better understanding of the text, and the discovery 
of the corruption of other translations.” It is not, you perceive, 
the Bible without note or comment. 

The Old Testament was printed at Douay, in 1609. Puller 
says of it, It is a translation that had need to be translated 
a great number of Greek words, such as azymes, pasche, etc., are 
left untranslated, which perplexes common readers; and the 
learned Fulke observes, that it is not truly translated; that the 
translators have always laboured to suppress the light of truth, 
under one pretence or another.” The notes connected with this 
Douay version are considered by Protestants as even more inju¬ 
rious than the text itself, which has been frequently revised and 
reprinted to this day for circulation among Boman Catholics, and 
is somewhat more conformed than it was to our own Authorized 



188 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


version^ but it always contaiES the apocryphal books. We need 
hardly add, that the Douay Bible is never circulated by the Bible 
Society. 

If any persons possessing rare editions of the Scriptures-wish 
to present them to this library, they may confer a benefit on the 
Society, and are sure to have their gifts carefully preserved. 

To those who have long known this Bible House, the library is 
hallowed ground, as having witnessed, from time to time, the 
presence of so many of its beloved friends and founders, now 
gathered to their rest. Of the latter, two only, and those near 
the end of their pilgrimage, have survived to witness its Jubilee, 
—Dr. Steinkopff, and the venerable Wm. Alers Hankey, Esq. 

The devotedness of those who first laboured in this noble cause 
was illustrated in the sentiment expressed by its first president, 
Lord Teignmouth, who, in his dying hours, said, would rather 
have been president of the Bible Society, than governor-general 
of India.'’^ This devotedness, it is evident, still animates those 
who are honourably employed in conducting the proceedings of 
the Society,—and never may it be wanting ! 

THE MANUSCRIPT AND DUPLICATE LIBRARY. 

Adjoining this interesting apartment (the library) is a lesser 
one, called the Manuscript Library, and here, in several locked 
and numbered cases, are contained the written versions in the 
possession of the Society,—some of them yet unprinted, and 
some the treasured originals from which the Bibles circulated by 
the Society have been printed. 

The Old Testament in the language of Lower Britanny is here. 
It is called the “ Breton Bible."” Britanny is a large country in 
the north-west of France, 800,000 of whose people speak or un¬ 
derstand a language very like Welsh. Those who live in the 
large towns can understand French, but nearly half a million of 
persons in the country villages can only speak the Breton lan¬ 
guage, in which, as yet, the Old Testament has never been printed. 
The manuscript version in this library was made more than twenty 



VARIOUS MANUSCRIPT VERSIONS. 


189 


years ago, by Legonidec, a learned Breton, who also made one of 
tbe New Testament, which was printed in 1827. 

Though in many respects an excellent version, it is not an in¬ 
telligible one to the common people in general, and the Bible 
Society in 1847 printed, and has since circulated, another version 
of the New Testament made by the Bev. J. Jenkins, missionary 
of the Baptist Missionary Society, labouring in that country ’ and 
this version is found to be better understood. 

Let us hope that very soon this locked-up jewel, the Old Tes¬ 
tament, of Legonidec’s translation, may be called for by the peo¬ 
ple of Britanny, revised, simplified, if need be, and distributed 
throughout the country. 

A Welshman requires but little study to enable him to con¬ 
verse, read, and write in the Breton language. It might please 
you to see the 1st verse of the 1st chapter of John in the Welsh 
and in the Breton tongues :— 

Welsh .—Yn y dechreuad yr oedd y Gair, a’r Gair oedd gyd a 
Buw, a Duw oedd y Gair.’’ 

Breton .—“ Er gommansamant e oa ar Ger, hag ar Ger a gand 
Doue, hag ar Ger a oa Done.” 

It is said by those who have visited that country, that Britanny 
is the darkest part of France, and the most under the dominion 
of the priests of Rome. The priests read the liturgy in Latin; 
but ill the country districts they preach in Breton. They do not 
favour the growth of the French language; and Breton will yet 
probably long be spoken by the common people. 

Here is another treasure—a Bible in manuscript, once belong¬ 
ing to the Nestorian Christians, bearing the marks of water, fire, 
smoke, and hard usage. 

AVe cannot but look with great interest on the precious book 
in its old manuscript form,—in the form which it took long 
years so carefully to transcribe, and which was then preserved 
in its pocket of thick leather, and slung to the shoulder of the 
pilgrim-missionary, and carried by him, perhaps, many hundred 
miles. 

Look at this ancient Syrian Pentateuch, written on vellum. It 



190 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


has been badly used before it came here; its edges are stained 
with damp and mould. 

These beautiful characters; delicately emblazoned in red; and 
black; and gold; are Persian. 

And here is a copy of the Ethiopic Scriptures; in manuscript; 
the penmanship of which is most beautifully executed. Every 
page is guiltless of blot or erasure. Another Ethiopic manuscript, 
emblazoned with grim figures, has been presented to the Bible 
Society by that kindred institution, the Church Missionary 
Society. 

The Rev. William Jowett, in an admirable paper he has written 
for the Bible Society, concerning its Jubilee Year, tells some 
interesting particulars concerning the Amharic version to be seen 
in this library. 

More than forty years ago, the French consul at Cairo, M. Asselin, 
met with a learned old Abyssinian, who had been the instructor 
of Bruce the traveller, and of Sir William Jones. M. Asselin, 
having saved this man’s life, employed him afterward in trans¬ 
lating the Scriptures, book after book, from the ancient into the 
modern tongue of Abyssinia. You will remember that, into the 
ancient language, Gheez, they had been translated by Frumentius, 
A. D. 330. 

When finished, the work long remained on M. Asselin’s hands. 
He offered it to the French King, to the Emperor of Russia, and 
to the Vatican library, in Rome; but they all looked coolly upon 
it. At last, in the year 1820, the Bible Society, having heard of 
this version from Mr. Jowett, who had resided in the East, asked 
him to return to Egypt and purchase it for them. He ascertained 
its accuracy by comparing the first, middle, and final verse of 
every chapter,—a process which occupied him eleven days : the 
purchase-money was 1250Z. It was then revised by T. P. Platt, 
Esq., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and printed, and is 
now distributed in Abyssinia. 

There are many instances recorded of the readiness with which 
the people there are now receiving the word of God. Mr. Gobat, 
the missionary, persuaded some of their own priests to distribute 



HOW TRANSLATIONS ARE OBTAINED. 


191 


it. He says, “ If I had had some thousands of New Testaments, 
I could have given them all away to eager readers. I know some 
instances where persons have given all their property to purchase 
a New Testament. One man gave two oxen for a copy of the four 
Gospels, and another gave four oxen for the same.^^ 

Mr. Jowett also, tells us, with regard to the Turkisli-Greek and 
Arabic versions, that remarkable and providential circumstances 
have prepared and placed these also in the hands of the Bible 
Society,—circumstances which the society could not have ordered 
for itself,—showing that the finger of God had prepared, in differ¬ 
ent parts of the world, the persons competent to translate the 
Scripture, (which is indeed no easy task,) and all in readiness for 
these times of its universal circulation. 

Bo you wish to know the way in which the Bible Society has 
generally obtained its later translations ? It is in this manner : 
the missionaries who are sent to preach the gospel in heathen 
countries, make it their first care to learn the language of those 
countries, and to translate the Scriptures into it, if they do not 
already exist,—for the missionary is nothing without the Bible. 
The missionaries translate, and through the societies with which 
they are connected, they present the manuscript translation to the 
Bible Society, with a request that the same may be printed. If 
the translation be approved of, this is readily done, or else a grant 
of money is made to get the translation printed, at the missionary 
station, under the eye of the translator himself. The Bible Society 
not only bears the expense of printing, but in many cases the ex¬ 
pense of making the translations by different missionaries. 

It does not trust the excellence of the version, however, to the 
judgment of the missionaries only, but has its own editorial com¬ 
mittee and translating superintendent, who minutely inquire into, 
and report upon, every version. 

When a second edition of any Bible is called for, the first edition 
is thoroughly revised, and re-revised, and so each version improves 
by degrees. 

Such men as the late T. P. Platt, Esq., Mr. W. Greenfield, and 
the Bev. Joseph Jowett, who were very learned in languages, 



192 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


assisted the Bible Society in this particular portion of its work. 
Many other gentlemen not officially connected with it have also 
rendered essential service in this department. 

The greatest literary talent will find its highest occupation in 
the service of the Bible Society. Buchanan says, “ He who pro¬ 
duces a new version of the Scriptures is a greater man than he 
who founds a kingdom.’^ A missionary tutor at Basle used to 
give this excellent advice to his pupils : Whatever you are study¬ 
ing, even if it be the driest grammar, think that you are doing it 
for Christ, and you will find it easy and pleasant.’’ 

Professor Graussen has given us a thought concerning these 
translations, which we will give you as briefly as possible, ere we 
bid farewell to the library :— 

If some friend, returning from the East Indies, bring you a 
letter from your father, written in Bengalee, and you do not under¬ 
stand it, you will get it translated; you will not be indifferent to 
it, because it is in Bengalee. You might have translations of it 
made into several other languages that you do understand,—into 
English, French, Latin, German, Spanish, Dutch, till you had no 
more doubt of the original meaning of the letter, than if you had 
been a Hindoo, and could have read it in the original. Every 
separate translation casts light on what the original must have 
been.” 

In this place you* have stood in the midst of all these lights 
upon the letter,—the letter from our Father who is in heaven.” 
It is now written in 150 languages, and in 177 versions,—the 
lights of the dark world. The letter can never now be hid, lost? 
or destroyed! 


We may now pass on to— 

THE COMMITTEE ROOMS; 

and, first, let us begin with that of the General committee. 

There is a long table in the middle of this room, covered with 
purple cloth,—the president’s chair being somewhat raised at one 




BIBLES AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 


193 


end of it; and down the sides are fixed benches, retiring row 
behind row, on a raised stage, till the room is filled up. 

In this room, a committee of thirty-six gen tlemen meet together, 
on every alternate Monday, in every month, and oftener, if neces¬ 
sary, to transact the general business of the society. Six of them 
must be foreigners, living in or near London, for it is a British 
and Foreign Bible Society. Fifteen must be members of the 
Church of England, and fifteen belong to other denominations of 
Christians. Such is the constitution of the society—a noble illus¬ 
tration of the maxim, Union is strength.’^ These gentlemen 
are all laymen; but every minister who becomes a member of the 
society, by subscription, may attend and vote at all meetings of 
the committee. 

At the upper end of this room is the case of Bibles which was 
exhibited in the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park, in 1851. All 
these Bibles of the society, in the different versions, are open, 
with a small ticket appended to each, defining its language to 
unlearned eyes, and stating the number of Bibles which the so¬ 
ciety has printed in that particular language. 

The attendant at the stall in the Palace'' says, that he found 
the existence of the Bible Society was comparatively little known 
by those world-wide visitors. Many, when it was explained to 
them, said, “ This is a noble work, indeed!" and some among 
the poorest, possessing little of this world's goods, exulted as 
they passed it, saying, This is the glory of the whole exhibi¬ 
tion ! and how it is hidden in a corner, when it ought to have 
had a place like the Koh-i-noor !" 

We can quite understand how the friends of deceased transla¬ 
tors were anxious to see the work of those they loved, and who had 
rendered such great service to society. One said, My hus¬ 
band, now in glory, translated this." Bussian, Dutch, German, 
Norwegian, Italian, Welsh, and even Chinese visitors, looked on 
the Bibles with gladness, while two French ladies asked for papers 
to take home with them, saying, “We are looking to England: 
France, Switzerland, all the nations are looking to England ‘ 

ir 



194 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


the pope has put his foot into England, but we look to you and 
your Bible.’' 

We may be allowed to suppose that this committee-room in 
the Bible House is a glorious room in the eyes of angels. If 
they could envy any among mankind, it would be those who sit 
at this table, and dispense the bread of life, sent down from 
heaven! 

Memory can people this room with the forms of the good men 
who have sat here in days gone by, but whose tongues are now 
silent in the grave—who always thought of the days when they 
met here as their best days, as the happiest days of the week. 

There are a few things in this committee-room to which we 
must call attention. Over the fireplace, and beneath the clock, 
you may observe Mr. Wyld’s Bible Society map, showing the 
moral state of the world by the aid of colours, and pointing out 
where Bibles have been circulated, how many copies, in what lan¬ 
guage, and other valuable statistics. There is the portrait of 
William Tyndal, whose grave, mild countenance seems to look 
down with complacency on those who are carrying out the work 
which he began : there also are the portraits of the former presi¬ 
dents, Lord Teignmouth and Lord Bexley, the old and tried 
friends of the society, both gone also to their reward. A portrait 
of Wielif ought certainly to be found there also. 

We noticed on the table a large book, loosely bound, like a 
series of papers slightly tacked together, and, on opening it, 
found that the characters, instead of being as usual printed in 
black on a white ground, were uncoloured, but large, and raised 
in relief upon the paper, like the impression of a seal. On the 
under side of the paper, the letters seemed pressed in, as on a 
seal. Those who have ever seen these raised characters, will 
know at once that this was a book printed for the blind. It was 
the Gospel of John, in English, and in a new and very simple 
character. 

This new and simple character is the invention of Mr. Moon, 
the master of the blind-school at Brighton, himself a blind man; 



BIBLE FOR THE BLIND. 


195 


and liis system is said to be so great an improvement npon those 
previously invented, that blind persons, who have been for years 
endeavouring in vain to learn to read on other systems, have in 
ten days accomplished their desire by the help of this. 

A blind girl in France, who gained her livelihood by manual 
labour, had obtained a copy of Mark’s Gospel, and also an alpha¬ 
bet for the blind. Being quick and intelligent, she was able in 
the course of a few days to decipher a whole page; but being 
herself desirous of making even faster progress, she took a pen¬ 
knife, and pared the skin from the tips of her fingers, thinking 
to render their touch more sensitive. Alas ! this only rendered 
them in a few days more callous, and she found she could no 
longer read at all. In a moment of despair, she took up her 
treasured volume, and pressed it to her lips, to bid it a last fare¬ 
well ; when, lo ! to her great joy, she discovered that she could 
thereby discern the letters, and from that time forth she has been 
reading with her lips. She has not only read the whole of Mark’s 
Gospel, but has actually committed it to memory 

Let us now pass on to— 

THE SMALLER COMMITTEE ROOM. 

The General committee of the Bible Society divides itself into 
several sections, which are called by different names. 

The Editorial committee is composed of those who are able to 
judge of the translations. The Depository committee is that 
which superintends the printing and binding of the Bibles. The 
Agency committee is that which directs the operations of the 
agents of the Society. There are also Finance and other sub¬ 
committees, conducted by men of business. 

Each member of the General committee is placed on that sub¬ 
committee for which his talents best fit him. It is Bible-work 
in which they all find themselves engaged, and it is conducted in 
a Bible-spirit. 

Around this sub-committee room are hung more portraits of 
the society’s faithful servants and friends, to some of whom it 



196 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


has been said, Enter ye into the joy of your Lord.’"' Here are 
those of the first three secretaries, the Eev. John Owen, the 
Rev. Joseph Hughes, and the Rev. Dr. Steinkopfi*. Here are 
also those of its warm friends,—of Wilberforce, Granville Sharp, 
Admiral Gambler, the Bishop of Winchester, Charles of Bala, 
Broadley Wilson, Dr. Adam Clarke with his Buddhist priests, 
and of Oberlin, the pastor of the Ban de la Roche, of Mr. W. 
Greenfield, of Alexander the late Emperor of Russia, and one of 
a Belgian colporteur,—a portrait esteemed worthy of a place, 
even here. 

But we must now leave what is called the Bible Society’s 
House,” and enter— 

THE BIBLE WAREHOUSE. 

Here the ever-varying stock of Bibles, in various languages, is 
kept, and from hence they are sent, east and west, north and 
south, by land and by water, as they may be ordered by Auxilia¬ 
ries, or as the benevolence of the committee may direct their 
distribution in this and other countries. One compartment con¬ 
sists of English Family Bibles: they are most beautiful volumes, 
and their price is one sovereign English money, each. 

From the largest, let us turn to the smallest. This Diamond 
Bible, with marginal references, bound in roan, and with gilt 
edges, is sold at the low price of Is. 3c7.: the same book, hand¬ 
somely bound in morocco, sells for Is. Wd. These are the Bibles 
that weigh eight and nine ounces, and this is their cost price; 
for it is not the object of the society to make any profit by the 
salcj but to extend the circulation as widely as possible. 

Ascending the stairs, we shall find ourselves still in a true 
place of business. As from the lower floor, so also from this, 
Bibles go out to all the world. See the wagon standing below to 
receive its precious load, to be taken to the docks, or perhaps to 
the railway stations, thence to give joy and spread light in Eng¬ 
land, or in some far-distant land. One feels something akin to 
reverence for that great iron crane. No other crane” in all 
London lifts such true riches! 



THE BIBLE WAREHOUSE. 


197 


Close to the trap-door in this floor lies a pile of Italian Bibles. 
One of the warehousemen said to us, Those don’t move now. 
Since the pope has come back to Rome, he will not let Bibles 
into Italy. That lot, too, are Spanish, and this, Malagassy: they 
are both very dead. English Bibles are lively, and move away 
as fast as they are ready.” “We sent out 9000 of these Dia¬ 
monds last month,” added our guide. , 

Precious “Pearls,” “Rubies,” and “Diamonds,” ( for these 
are really the names of the different types in which the Bibles 
are printed,) may the demand for them continually increase! 
Blessed be God! Malagassy Bibles are dead no longer! After 
seventeen years of bitter persecution, on the part of the queen 
of that country, instigated by her prime minister, the God who 
rules over all has removed the blind and wicked man; and now 
we may hope that her son, her own son, whose heart the Lord 
has turned to himself, will, with Ms prime minister,—the son of 
the very minister who persecuted and sent the missionaries out 
of the island,—recall them, and all the Christians, and open the 
ports to commerce. 

And so the blood of the martyrs has beeu the seed of the 
church, as it always was. The suffering Christians have wan¬ 
dered about in forests, and dwelt in caves, have been obliged to 
bury their Bibles, have been poisoned, beaten, and slain, but, in 
spite of all, have multiplied; and it is said, there are 5000 now, 
in Madagascar, who love the Lord Jesus, out of a population of 
4,000,000, and 500 native teachers ready to go back to them 
from the Mauritius. 

Speed, then, over the deep, Malagassy Bibles, in the hands of 
devoted missionaries I May one of your number win its way to 
the eye and the heart of the queen herself, leading her to weep 
like Saul of Tarsus over her work of persecution, and to apply 
for pardon to Him who alone has power to forgiye sin i 


These are the Chinese Testaments. The words are not arranged 
across the page, but in columns from top to bottom. The paper 

17 -^ 




198 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


is very tbin^ and printed only on one side, and the plain sides of 
two pages are folded together, like one of our uncut books. The 
paper for these is made, and the books are printed, in China. 
The cover also is Chinese, made of yellow paper, like silk, shot 
with gold dust. They are printed from wooden blocks, on which 
the characters are cut, after the manner of our woodcuts. Here, 
again, is a Chinese book, printed in England, on English 
paper, on both sides of the sheet, and bound after the English 
fashion. From this circumstance it may become, perhaps, an 
attractive book to the Chinese themselves. 

More piles of books of all sizes, and another floor of them ! 
Swedish Bibles, Portuguese, French, Bussian, Amharic, Tahitian, 
Malay, etc. ^^This stack of English,^^ said our companion, 
^^came from Oxford this morning. The boxes which strew the 
warehouse contain 20,000 Bibles and Testaments for Toronto. 
Yesterday we could scarcely get ready as many more for Ireland, 
chiefly for the use of the schools of the Hibernian Society.^^ 

There is a little room on the second floor, which belonged to 
Mr. Cockle, known for thirty years at this Bible House, as its 
faithful and unwearied depositary: when, during his latter years, 
he was most busily engaged, he sought refuge from intrusion in 
this place. We have often found him here, in past time, but 
now we find him not. He, too, is ^^gone up on high,’’ having 
devoted the greater part of his life to the service of the Bible 
Society. His little, empty, desolate room was the only sad cor¬ 
ner of this rich storehouse. 

AVhen the attendants were all gone, we stood alone for a while 
among the great piles of Bibles,—alone with all those written 
voices of God,^the voice that answered Job out of the whirlwind, 
that thundered in the deserts of Sinai, that spoke by the prophets, 
and in the sweet harp of David;—the voice that clothed its 
majesty in tepderness from the lips of the Bedeemer of the world, 
and through evangelists and apostles is come down even to us—to 
our homes, to our hearts, and daily lives! 

Without ascending another floor, still more heavily laden with 
unbound Bibles, in various languages, you have noticed enough 



BIBLE PRINTING. 


199 


for the present at the Bible Society’s House and warehouse, and 
you are invited to accompany us to those interesting places where 
the Holy Scriptures are “printed,” and “bound.” 


CHAPTER U. 

Bible-Printing at Shacklewell—Ancient Printing-Office—The Compositor— 
The Reader. ' 

THE PRINTING AND BINDING OF THE BIBLE. 

Those who live near Oxford and Cambridge, where a great 
part of the Bibles circulated by the British and Foreign Bible 
Society are printed, may visit the Bible presses in those cele¬ 
brated universities: there are others who may find it more con¬ 
venient to visit a third great Bible-printing establishment, that 
of the Queen’s Printers’ at Shacklewell, in the suburbs of Lon¬ 
don. At this place a very large proportion of the Society’s 
Bibles, both in English and Welsh, are printed. 

Most young persons in the present day have seen a printing- 
office : but we will suppose that we are describing one to children 
in the age of Wiclif, when there was not one to be seen. 

In the early ages of Printing, in the latter end of the sixteenth 
century, it was reckoned so far one of the liberal arts, that it was 
practised only by men of birth and education. The compositors, 
or persons who set up the types, had an ancient privilege, which 
proves this,—they were allowed to wear swords. In old pictures 
of a printing-office, you may see the master-printer, a grave and 
bearded personage, dressed in a fur-trimmed robe, apparently 
giving directions to the workmen. These consist of several com¬ 
positors, comfortably seated on cushioned stools, their dirks and 
swords resting against a column by their side. Near them is an 
old man in spectacles, probably the reader; others are working at 
rude presses. 




200 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


We have been astonished in remarking the beauty and perfec¬ 
tion of the type of some of those early Bibles, printed with so 
few aids from that principle of division of labour which is now 
so thoroughly understood; but then the impressions were not 
required in the numbers they are at -present. It would be 
possible to print 4500 Bibles a day at this one establishment of 
Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode. Let us see what the compositors 
do toward it. 

They each work at a desk, or frame, and they work silently, in 
a room by themselves. It is not now thought necessaiy that they 
should be gentlemen by condition, or even ambitious men;—they 
must be those who are content to begin the work at its beginning, 
and to do it steadily and patiently. 

Their desk or frame contains two pairs of cases, one furnished 
with Roman letters, and the other with Italic. These cases are 
divided into 154 partitions, some larger than the rest, for the 
letters that are sure to be most wanted. The letters 1, m, n, a, e, 
i, 0 , u, are far more frequently needed than j, k, q, x, z. 

These partitions are not labelled. A stranger to the art is 
surprised at the accuracy with which a compositor dips his fingers 
into the division containing the letter he requires; but it is a 
fact, that the youngest boy in a printing-office very soon learns 
the places of the letters, without any difficulty. Those letters 
which he will want most are placed in the divisions nearest to 
his hand; and, standing before the pair of cases which contain 
the Roman letters, he holds in his left hand what is called a com- 
posing stick. 

This is a little iron or brass frame, one side of which is mova¬ 
ble, so that it may be adjusted to the required width of the page 
or column which the workman has to set up. It is made per¬ 
fectly true and square, and will hold about twelve lines of such 
type as the present. The copy of the Scriptures, which the com¬ 
positor we saw at work was imitating, lay on the least used part 
of the upper case. 

He seemed to take into his mind a line at a time, which it is 
easier to do from a printed book than if he had been reading 



THE COMPOSITOR. 


201 


very carelessly-written manuscript, tliough even this can be done 
by a practised eye. One by one, be places the letters for each 
word into his stick, bis right band going to the box, and bis left 
securing each letter. He showed us that in every letter there 
was a nick, which he always placed downward the .moment he 
touched it, without looking at it. This nick is one of those pretty 
contrivances for saving labour, which experience has introduced 
into every art. 

His mind was now fully engaged with his work: he had to 
attend to the right spelling of the words, the right placing of the 
capital letters, the right positions for the stops, the placing of the 
words at right distances in his stick, without crowding, or giving 
them too much space; for, as the letters are not all of the same 
thickness, the spaces necessarily vary, though, on the whole, they 
are regular, and regularity in spacing distinguishes a good com¬ 
positor. 

When he had filled his stick, he cleverly grasped all the type, 
and took it out, as if it had been one solid piece of metal. A 
practised compositor can do this, but a young apprentice has his 
patience tasked to the utmost, if, after toiling for an hour or two 
in picking up several hundred letters, he drops the ichole while 
moving them, as he has then to mourn over the broken heap, 
which printers call pie, in the same way as children sometimes 
mourn over their fallen towers of bricks. 

The words are now lifted out into what is called a galley, and 
the galley is filled by the contents of successive sticks. When 
as many lines are set up as will fill a page, they are bound tightly 
round with cord, and placed under the frame, and when as many 
pages are set up as will fill a sheet, they are arranged in proper 
order upon the imposing-stone. Each page is suri’ounded with a 
piece of wood, called furniture, which proHdes an equal margin 
for every page, and the whole is wedged tightly together in a 
stout iron frame. It is now termed a form, and being perff'/^lly 
tight and compact, it can be carried about with as much ease as 
if it were composed of solid plates of metal, instead of being 
made up of forty or fifty thousand movable pieces. From this 



202 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


form a 'proof is taken for the reader: the first sheet printed is 
called Vi proof . 

The first portion of the compositor’s work is now completed j 
and if it has been well and carefully done, the reader will have 
very little trouble with it. It may present, and often does, a 
specimen of what industry and care can effect at once : there will 
not be a wrong letter in twenty lines,—a gross mistake, seldom. 
The printer’s reader looks over the proof while another person 
reads the copy aloud: he marks in the margin all the errors, and 
then returns the proof to the compositor, when he commences a 
second portion of labour and difficulty. If he has omitted a 
whole sentence, it will perhaps compel him to alter many pages, 
in order to insert it. 

In this new process, new blunders are often committed, and, 
when again revised by the reader, it is once more given back to 
the compositor, who has need of much patience and perseverance; 
indeed, he is a very principal person in the production of a Bible 
or any other book; it will require a little patience, on your part, 
even to read the account of his labours. 

The proof being now tolerably perfect, the labour of a second 
reader is called in. It is his business to read for press,” that is, 
to search for the minutest errors, with the most industrious criticism. 

The form of type being at last corrected for press, the work of 
the compositor is at an end; and when the desired number of copies 
have been printed off, it is a part of his business to return the 
type to the cases, in order to furnish material for another sheet, 
and this operation is called distributing the type. 

This is a beautiful process in the hands of an expert compositor, 
who shows the dexterity acquired by long practice. He will dis¬ 
tribute four times as fast as he composes, and, if necessary, return 
to their places 50,000 letters a day. To know his p’s from his 
q’s” is considered a great difficulty for a beginner. 

We expected to find, that, as the Bible is a book in very large 
and constant demand, we should hear that it was generally printed 
from what are called stereotype-plates. These are made by taking 
a mould in plaster from each page of movable type, and then 



STEREOTYPING. 


203 


casting metal into the mould. This is altogether rather a delicate 
and difl&cult operation : the types must first be thoroughly cleaned, 
and then rubbed over with an oily composition, to prevent the 
adhesion of the plaster. If the least morsel does adhere, and it 
often does, the mould is spoiled. If, when removed, it is found 
perfect, the mould is baked, and this also is critical, for, if the 
oven be too hot, the moulds warp: then there is the casting, and 
the very best casting of metal into the mould cannot prevent 
occasional defects on the surface of the plate, which requires after¬ 
ward minute examination by a workman called a 'picker. He 
removes the small globules of metal which occasionally fill up such 
letters as the a and the e, inserts here and there a new letter, by 
soldering, and removes with his graver any impurities which fill up 
the lines : this workman must possess a keen eye and steady hand. 

You may judge, from this description, that stereotyping, or 
making a sheet of metal types all in one piece, is a process which 
requires much skill and experience. Still, as the Bible is con¬ 
stantly in request, we thought we should find it was mostly printed 
from stereotype-plates : but it is not. It is considered that stereo¬ 
typing is the more expensive mode of printing of the two; because, 
■with all the improvements that have now taken place, in harden¬ 
ing the metal of which the plate is composed, a set of stereotype- 
plates will only print 150,000 copies of the Bible before they re¬ 
quire to be renewed. On the other hand, from movable type, or 
type set up letter by letter in its form, it is possible, without re¬ 
newal, to print a million copies. Here, however, there is revision 
made of the types, after every edition of about 5000 copies. 

Perhaps you would not imagine the value of the type required 
for a Bible: it astonished us. The value of the type for a Diamond 

24 Verily, verily, I say unto 70u,?)He that Biblo, of which this is R SpOCi- 

men, is several thousand pounds • 
therefore type, of course, is care¬ 
fully preserved. 

We inquired whether Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode now printed 
any Bibles with the Apocrypha; because these gentlemen print 
for other parties besides the Bible Society. The reply was, that 


p eh. 3.16,18. 
*6.40,47. 

* 8.51., etc. 


. ' 7' ,. 

hcareth my word, and believeth on him that 
sent me, bath everlasting life, and shall not 
come into condemnation; gbut is passed 
from death unto life. 






204 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


the copies printed with the Apocrypha decreased in number from 
year to year, and that not a thousand copies were printed in the 
space of two years. 

You would now wish to pass into the printing-room. Here we 
did not find a cylinder-press, as for the printing of The Times 
newspaper, but twelve steam-presses, of considerable cost, and each 
one attended by a man and four boys. 

These presses are set in motion separately, but all by one steam- 
engine in an adjoining room : the ages of the boys employed to 
attend them are from fourteen to sixteen, and they are said to be¬ 
come, from habit, almost a part of the machinery. This is an 
interesting fact to the young, is it not ?—that the actual ‘printing 
of the word of God (after the careful labours of the compositors 
and correctors of the press) is accomplished hy young persons! 
This used not to be the case, when hand-presses only were used, 
which, in this establishment, are still worked in another depart¬ 
ment. 

About 150 persons are now employed upon the printing of the 
Bible, at Shacklewell, instead of fifty, which used to be the number 
formerly,—-showing the increased demand for the Holy Scriptures. 

But now let us begin to print. 

On the solid iron table at each end of the machine, lie the forms 
of type from which both sides of the sheet are printed. At each 
end of the machine is a pile of wet paper: this paper is wetted, 
quire by quire, before it comes to the machine-room. It is dipped 
two or three times, according to its thickness, in a trough of water, 
and then opened, and powerfully pressed, to diffuse the moisture; 
for, if not thus moistened, the printers’ ink would lie upon the 
surface of the paper, and smear. 

By this pile of paper, at each side of the press, stand two boys; 
they are called laying-on hoys ; they feed the press with the paper, 
sheet by sheet, and two other boys, standing below them, take 
away each sheet as it is printed : some ten or twenty spoiled sheets 
are first passed over the types to remove any dirt or moisture. 

At the first movement of the great wheel, the inking-apparatus 
at each end has been set in motion, and the steel cylinder attached 



MACHINE-PRINTINa. 


205 


to the reservoir of ink has begun to move. Printers’ ink is not 
fluid like writing ink, but is a stiflp, soft paste. The ink-receivers 
are long, soft, elastic rollers, and are composed of a mixture of glue 
and treacle; they are renewed every week : we noticed a number 
of fresh rollers hanging up against the wall. Two engineers are 
in constant attendance to keep the engine, the machines, and all 
other parts in daily repair. 

The first roller is called the doctor: it turns over on the surface 
of the ink-reservoir, and takes up a small quantity, which it com¬ 
municates to an inking-tahlej over the surface of which three or 
four distributing rollers spread it equally. 

This even surface then communicates to two inking-rollers that 
which they shall impart to the forms which are to be printed: 
the ink is thus conveyed from roller to roller, that it may be all 
of an equal fineness or consistency, and to prevent blots and faint 
places, technically called monks and friars. 

All these beautiful operations are accomplished in the sixteenth 
part of a minute, by the travelling backward or forward of the 
table upon which the forms rest, while each roller revolves on a 
fixed axis. 

The moment the form or mass of type has passed under the 
inking-rollers, one of the boys places the damp sheet upon a 
frame, when it and the form are conveyed together under a 
smooth iron flat-surface, which powerfully presses the damp sheet 
upon the face of the types. After being thus printed, it is con¬ 
veyed back to its former place, and the sheet is then removed by 
another boy to a heap at the side. When the ink becomes firm 
or set, the other side of the sheet is printed by the same process. 
It is so contrived that each page shall be printed exactly at the 
back of another page. 

If there be no extraordinary hinderance or obstruction, one man 
and four boys can print 500 sheets in an hour; indeed, there is 
not much for them to do, except to attend upon and watch this 
wonderful, unconscious giant, the steam-press, in his operations. 

They feed him with paper, which he takes, adjusts, prints, and 

renders back, always supplying himself with fresh ink for the 

18 



206 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


printing of every sheet; and all so quickly, that the boys can 
scarcely move fast enough to give and receive the work from his 
hand; and when we think what is the work he is doing at Shackle- 
well, how glorious is the outlay of his strength! 

If these twelve presses were all at full work, (thirteen sheets 
being necessary to the completion of a Bible,) 450 of these 
written voices of God might go forth from this room in one hour, 
—4500 might be issued in a day. Oh! that the British and 
Foreign Bible Society might ever have occasion to order so 
many! 

Twenty-seven thousand might be issued in a week, nearly one 
million and a half in a year, from this one source of supply alone! 
and it must be remembered, that this is hut one of the establish¬ 
ments at work for the British and Foreign Bible Society. It can 
employ the giant, when needful, in all quarters of the world at 
once; for, by the wonderful inventions and improvements of this 
nineteenth century, the books can be produced at the cheapest 
possible rate, and circulated with the greatest possible speed. 

In the process of placing the pages of type for the formation 
of the sheet, a small mark is inserted at graduated intervals on 
each sheet, so that when the book is folded and gathered together, 
a diagonal line is formed by these little printed marks across the 
back, thus enabling the binder’s collator to detect at a glance a 
missing or a misplaced sheet. 

After the sheets are printed, they must be dried, which is done 
by hanging them in rooms and passages fitted with hot-air pipes; 
and they are lifted with an instrument called Vi printer’s peel. 

They are then pressed in a hydraulic press, and afterward laid 
down in piles of about 1000 of each signature, on boards forming 
a square, in alphabetical order, and then gathered, as it is called, 
by a boy, who stands in the middle of a square space, and collects 
the sheets in succession, according to the letter which is printed 
at the bottom of the page, called a signature, for the guidance of 
the binder. 

Every sheet is then collated, to see that the whole are in proper 
alphabetical order, that no sheet is wanting, or one too many: 



BINDING OF THE BIBLE. 


207 


wlien collated, tlie sheets are folded, separated into hooks, again 
pressed, and then tied up to go to the Bible Society’s warehouse. 

The number of hands the Bible passes through in the course 
of printing is as follows:— 

Compositor, Cold-presser 

Four readers. Gatherer, 

Beviser for press. Collator 

Corrector, Folder, 

One pressman and four boys, Booker, 

Looker-over, Presser, 

Hanger-up, Tier-up, 

— twenty-one persons in all; not to speak of— 

Type-founders, Printers’-joiners. 

Iron-founders, Printing-ink-makers, 

Wholesale-stationers, Paper-makers, and 

Composition-roller-makers, Engineers, 

who must each, with the whole series of workmen in their several 
factories, have combined to the production of the Book. There 
are about fourteen processes, in the making of the printing-paper 
alone;—and yet we have to bind it. 


THE BINDING OF THE BIBLE. 

It is a sort of principle among bookbinders, that the subject of 
a book shall be known by its cover. This, however, refers to 
ornament, and the Bible Society do not provide ornamented 
Bibles; their great aim is extreme cheapness combined with 
good and strong work; and they take every means to secure this. 
They have all their books bound by contract. We paid an inte¬ 
resting visit to the premises of the present contractor, (Mr. Wat¬ 
kins,) and found ourselves in a large, airy, and well-warmed 
room, furnished with long tables, at which sat numbers of neat, 
healthy, and happy-looking girls, their ages from twelve to eigh¬ 
teen, not sitting crowded together, but each having room for her 
work—her pleasant work. 



208 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


As we looked at them and inspected their proceedings in de¬ 
tail, that we might describe them to you, we thought how much 
rather we would choose to work for our living as Bible-binders 
than as milliners— 


Fashion’s poor, pale slaves, 

Working to their graves. 

—with so few hours’ rest allowed in the twenty-four. 

At Mr. Watkins’s establishment, the girls work ten houi-s a 
day, and they are paid according to the quantity of the work they 
get through, and this tends to make them industrious. They 
have many checks over their performance, and the contractor is 
under an engagement to replace, at his own cost, any books found 
to be badly bound; therefore, for bad folding and stitching they 
are fined: that they are, however, generally careful, is proved by 
the fact, that the fines do not amount to five pounds a year among 
200 workpeople. 

When you think that the Bible is printed in large sheets, 
sometimes sixty-four pages in a sheet, you will, of course, per¬ 
ceive that these large sheets will need folding, even if the printer 
fold them once, for the convenience of tying up. 

They are received at the binder’s by a warehouseman, who 
gives them out to each folder, in as many successive sheets as 
will fbrm the whole Bible. 

Each folder sits by a table on which she spreads out the sheets. 
In her right hand she holds a small ivory or bone folding-knife, 
with which she flattens the foldings of the sheet: this folding 
seems to us very quickly done, but it is so only from practice, 
for it requires accuracy, as the first and last lines of the print must 
range evenly with the opposite page. In taking up the sheet 
she looks merely at what is called the signaturey —a letter stand¬ 
ing by itself at the bottom of the page, which you perhaps have 
never noticed. It is placed there chiefly as a direction to the 
binder. 

She takes up first letter A, folds the sheet down the middle, 
and then across, and also once more down the middle; she then 



FOLDING AND SEWING. 


209 


takes up the next sheet, letter B, folds it in the same manner, 
and lays it upon letter A; and proceeds in the same way with all 
the letters of the alphabet, till she begins it again; only to the 
second A is attached a small a, to the second B, a small b, and 
so on : you can find these printer’s marks, if you look through 
the Bible. 

After these folded sheets have been taken from the rolling- 
press for binding, the collator takes the whole in his hand to see 
that they ai'e laid in proper order, that no sheet is wanting, and 
that the folding is correct, and this is very expertly done; the 
sheets are held at one corner, and allowed to spring back, one 
after another, leaving, to the experienced eye, just time enough 
to catch the signature letters: this collation takes place in a 
separate room, and any error is at once adjusted. 

And now the book is to be sewn. A girl, sitting sideways 
against the table on which the sheets are laid, first takes up that 
marked A, and places the back of it against three strings or 
tapes, (or if it be a large book, against four tapes,) fastened in a 
sewing-press, then passing a needle, filled with strong thread, 
through the sheet, from the inside, she brings it out at the back, 
and carries it over one of the tapes, pushing the needle through 
the paper again from the outside,—thus causing the thread to 
embrace the tape. 

Her left arm, passes round the press, and returns the needle 
from one side to the other; thus sheet by sheet is fastened to the 
tapes. 

This process is conducted with wonderful quickness: the 
polished needle flies-in and out and over the tapes, in far less 
time than it takes to tell about it, for practice makes perfect, and 
this is the sewer’s whole employ from day to day, and from week 
to week; and her wages depend not on the nuniber of hours she 
sits at her press, but on the number of books she sews. 

One little girl we accidentally selected, who was a learner, and 
only thirteen years of age, told us she had been in the establish¬ 
ment nearly three months : she said she had earned Is. Sc?, the 
day before; but we found she was considered by the forewoman. 



210 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY 


a naturally quick as well as a steady child. The young people 
get accustomed by degrees to the close attention that the work 
requires, and that is necessary'to insure good wages. 

After the Bibles are sewn, they are again taken to the re-col- 
lating-room to be examined. Every sheet is looked at, to see if it 
may have been torn by accident, carelessly, or improperly stitched: 
this examination requires, also, that the mind be entirely fixed on 
its occupation, for the least distraction may cause an error to be 
overlooked. 

Presuming that no such faults have been discovered, the books 
are carried into another building, occupied solely by men. Here 
they are first placed in piles, a sheet of iron or zinc between each 
book, in a hydraulic-press, and pressed with immense force. In 
this press they are left some time; and, when taken from it, are 
passed into the cutting-room. There a cutting-press, with a large, 
sharp knife, is employed. The books are very carefully placed 
under the knife, the size to which they are to be cut being regu¬ 
lated by a scale at the side of the machine, and then, by means 
of a lever, the whole quantity is cut at one stroke of the knife. 

The gilder next receives the books, and screws them up in a 
powerful horizontal press; the edges are then scraped, washed 
with a composition of red chalk and water; and while this is 
drying, the leaf-gold is blown out from the book in which it is 
sold by the goldbeater, on a cushion covered with leather, where 
it is placed smoothly, by the aid of a knife. On the work-bench 
is a cup containing white of egg, beaten up with water, a little 
of which is laid by a camels’-hair pencil on the still damp surface 
of chalk and water. The gold is then taken up, piece after piece, 
and laid on the book’s edge: this is done to all the three edges 
in succession, and to many books together, all squeezed tightly 
in the press, to produce a solid and even surface. 

After a few minutes, the gold has become sufficiently dry and 
set for polishing, by a process which would seem adapted to rub 
off every atom of gold, but it does not do so. 

The workman holds in his hand a long-handled burnisher, at 
the lower end of which is fixed a very smooth, straight-edged 



GILDING AND MARBLING. 


211 


piece of agate; this he places on the gilt surface, and, with his 
left elbow resting on the workbench, and the handle of the 
burnisher resting on his right shoulder, he rubs the gold with 
great force, not along the edge, but across it: no gold is rubbed 
off, but the whole is highly polished by this treatment; and when 
the gilding is complete, paper is wrapped round the edges to pre¬ 
vent their being soiled while the book is finishing. 

When the Bibles are required with sprinkled edges, the books 
are tied up in quantities between two boards: they are then 
placed edges upward, and a man holding a brush dipped in ochre 
and water, or umber and water, and sometimes in Venetian red, 
high in the air over the books, with one hand strikes the brush 
with a stick held in the other, and thus sprinkles a fine shower 
of the colouring matter over the edges; this is often repeated 
with another colour; and the cheap, buff-coloured sheep covers 
of Testaments for schools, are sprinkled in the same way. 

The marbled edges of books are produced by sprinkling pig¬ 
ments of several colours upon a fluid preparation, contained in a 
large trough, where they float, the colours being mixed with oil; 
and the edges of the books, being alternately placed for a moment 
upon this surface, imbibe the colours. 

After the edges have been thus prepared, the books are then 
each singly hammered, to give a rounded form to the back, and a 
concave surface to the front: the back, being previously covered 
with glue, retains the shape thus given to it. 

It is then placed between two boards, and again in a press, 
with the back uppermost, and the back once more hammered, so 
that it shall flatly incline over the boards; and after various 
minor processes, the book which seemed to lie passive in the 
hands of the workmen, to be moulded round or square by turns, 
as they pleased, emerges from all its battering, into the care of 
its ‘‘case-maker’^ who will dress it in sheep, calf, or morocco, 
according to the price at which it must be sold. The leather, of 
whatever kind, being cut half an inch larger than the book, all 
round, is pared at the edges with a keen knife: this leather is 
partly stamped before it is attached to the book, which attach- 



212 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


ment is an affair of very great nicety, as overlapping the edges 
and turning in the corners require the greatest exactness, other¬ 
wise the book would be spoiled. 

The little head-band of bright silk or calico, crimson or purple, 
is now applied. 

The granulated appearance of the morocco bindings is produced 
by a curious mode of rubbing the leather against itself. If the 
book is to be stamped or embossed, the process is aided by heat, 
and performed by a machine. 

We cannot enter into any further detail of the decoration,^' 
as it is called, of the cover of the Bible. From time to time, 
new patterns and devices are presented for this purpose; and, 
after all this inspection, it is a greater wonder to us than ever, 
that a book, which requires the aid of— 

14 persons to make its paper; 

21 persons to print it correctly, 

19 persons to bind it neatly, 


54 persons in all, 

(not to speak of those of other trades, who must have combined 
to its production,) can be sold by the Bible Society for one shil¬ 
ling sterling! 

The number of hands which a Bible with gilt edges, bound in 
roan, passes through, in process of binding, is as follows:— 
Binder’s warehouseman. First collator, 


Folder, 

Holler, 

Paperer, 

Presser, 

Cutter, 

Examiner of cutting, 

Grilder, 

Cutter out of cover. 

Embosser, 

When the books are sent home to the Bible House, which they 
are to the number (on an average) of nearly three thousand daily, 


Sewer, 

Second collator. 

Forwarder, 

Letterer, 

Yarnisher, 

Greneral examiner of binding. 
Wrapper in paper covers, and 
Packer. 



BIBLE NOT ISSUED IN SHEETS. 


213 


another examination takes place, and frequently defective copies 
are returned to the hinder to be made good. 

Any person discovering an error in a Bible printed for the 
British and Foreign Bible Society, confers a benefit on them by 
returning it to the Bible House, as it makes all the parties em¬ 
ployed more careful. 

No Bibles are voted by the British and Foreign Bible Society 
to other societies, or for any purpose whatever, in sheets. Every 
Bible it sends forth is bound: this is to prevent the possibility 
of the Book afterward being bound up with any of the apocry¬ 
phal books, or with any note or preface whatsoever. The Society 
circulates the word of God alone, without note or comment.^^ 

And, now, farewell to the externals of the sacred Book. We 
hope it has pleased you to examine even these, in contrast to the 
age of ancient manuscript. We pass on to the history of the 
Bible in the nineteenth century. 



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PAET III. 

THE BRITISH AND FOREiaN BIBLE SOCTETFS 
RISE, PROGRESS, 

AND PRESENT OPERATIONS. 










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CHAPTER I. 


Rev. T. Charles—Particulars of his Youth—His Missionary Spirit—His Useful¬ 
ness to the Young—Scarcity of the Scriptures in Wales—Circulating Schools 
—Committing the Bible to memory—Grown-up Scholars—Meeting of twenty 
Schools—The little Girl who had no Bible—The twelve Peasants—Mr. Charles’s 
Visit to London—Tract Committee—Want of Wales, and of the World—For¬ 
mation of the British and Foreign Bible Society—Collections in Wales—In¬ 
fluential Friends and Supporters—Objects and Constitution jof the Society, 
formed alike for Home and the World—Its Principle—Union and Co-operation 
of all Partie"s—Rev. J. Owen—Rev. J. Hughes. 


We are coming at last to the sunshiny portion of the Story of 
the Book,—having now nothing but bright and happy work be¬ 
fore us. We have been obliged to go and weep over the graves 
of the ancient martyrs and translators, that we might know the 
price which had-been paid for our precious Bible. We hope that 
many young persons will henceforth take the treasure into their 
hands, with loving, reverent, and grateful hearts; and perhaps 
with more gladness than they ever felt before, and pass on to the 
true and wonderful tale of the last fifty years. 

If we were to tell you one-tenth of what there is to be told, of 
the times in which this Book has been allowed and enabled to 
travel freely round the world, oter^book would be too large for you 
to buy, or read. 

You will wish to know, first, how the British and Foreign Bible 
Society arose. It has been said, very truly, that it grew out of 
a want ,^^—the want of the Bible in Wales. 

You will best understand this want, if we recount to you some 
incidents in the life of the Rev. Thomas Charles. He has been 
called the Apostolic Charles of Bala,’^ (a town in Merioneth¬ 
shire,) and was a man of a truly missionary spirit. At the begin¬ 
ning of this century, he was about fifty years of age, and had been 

19 217 


218 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


twenty years labouring in 
Wales, wandering up 
and down,^’ as be says, 
that cold and barren 
country, to preach the 
everlasting gospel.^^ 

At the age of eighteen, 
being deeply impressed 
with the value of his own 
soul, and of the glorious 
plan of salvation set forth 
in the gospel, he became 
anxious also for the salva¬ 
tion of others. His first 
efforts to this end began 
at home, in his father’s 
Charles. family, and being natu¬ 

rally of a mild temper and disposition, he was beloved by all his 
relations : notwithstanding his youth, and, as he says, his little 
knowledge, he was enabled to maintain much influence for good, 
and by his means family-worship was soon established in his 
father’s house. 

His education commenced at Caermarthen, and was continued 
at Oxford, where he was supported by remarkable supplies of God’s 
providence, afforded as he needed them; speaking of which, he 
remarks, There are no difficulties with God: diffculties exist 
wholly in our unbelieving hearts.” 

In the year 1777, he spent his vacation with the Rev. John 
Newton, of Olney, the friend of the poet Cowper, and he seems 
greatly to have valued the visit, during which he also heard Mr. 
Romaine preach. Intercourse with men such as these, in early 
life, is a great privilege, and often fixes the character and pursuits 
of young persons. 

If these two good men could have foreseen in Mr. Charles one 
of the fathers and founders of the noblest society in the world, 
they would still more have rejoiced to take him by the hand, and 






REV. THOMAS CHARLES. 


219 


speed him on liis way. Ilis character was evidently remarkable 
for ingenuousness and humility,—the sweet fruits of true piety. 
He was ordained deacon at the age of twenty-three, at Oxford; 
and he says, I felt, on that day, an earnest desire that God would 
enable me to devote myself wholly to his service, for the rest of 
my days on earth.’’ 

We cannot go into all the details of Mr. Charles’s history. He 
had an excellent wife, for whom he waited several years. His 
income from his curacy, at one time, was not more than forty 
pounds a year, hut this did not prevent his doing much good 
among his parishioners; for although he had not silver and gold 
to give, he could offer medicine for the healing of the soul, and 
hold forth the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus. 

His labours were especially useful to children and young people. 
Finding many of them at Bala and the neighbourhood very igno¬ 
rant, he invited them to his house, where he gave them religious 
instruction, and catechised them, on the Sabbath evenings. His 
preaching, being of a deeply-impressive and faithful character, 
gave offence to many who were not willing to live according to its 
standard. His services were rejected, to his great grief, by three 
churches in the establishment—a circumstance which will show 
the state of religion at that time in North Wales. He was there¬ 
fore, though a churchman, as he says, from education and princi¬ 
ple, compelled to remain unemployed, and feel himself an un¬ 
profitable servant,” or else to itinerate, which means, to preach 
from place to place; and, in choosing the latter course, he especially 
devoted himself to the spiritual good of children'and young people. 

The fruits of his labours, and the results of his long and toil¬ 
some journeys, are still visible in Wales, in the superior knowledge 
of the Scriptures possessed by many whom he caused to be taught 
as children. Many thousands at the great day of account will 
probably acknowledge him as the instrument of their salvation, 
during the thirty years of his earnest ministry. 

In many parts of the country the sound of the gospel had 
scarcely been heard for centuries, and the people were as ignorant 
as those in a heathen land. The Welsh Bible, though printed 



220 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


long previously by private effort^ and repeatedly afterward by the 
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, instituted in 1698, 
was scarcely to be found in any poor cottage in Wales, in the year 
1783. In many parishes, not ten persons could read. 

Where such darkness existed, of course the works of darkness 
would be carried on, and the people were to a great extent immoral 
and ungodly. Mr. Charles soon perceived, that, in order to do 
any permanent good, the children must be regularly instructed: 
this, therefore, he undertook as his special work. 

There had been established a few years before, by the liberality 
of a lady named Mrs. Bevan, (who left ten thousand pounds in 
her will for the purpose,) what were called circulating schools,^^ 
movable from one place to another, at the end of nine or twelve 
months. These schools are still to be found in different parts of 
Wales; but at the period we refer to, they had ceased, owing to 
some legal dispute about the property which supported them. 

Mr. Charles wished to re-establish such schools, to procure 
teachers, and to raise money to support them. Some of the first 
teachers he taught himself. It was said by the Duke of Welling¬ 
ton, If you want any thing done thoroughly, you must do it 
yourself.” Mr. Charles raised the money by the help of benevolent 
English friends; and he began with one teacher,—a small begin¬ 
ning for the great and glorious results which followed; for there 
is now no district of Wales without the means of learning to read 
the word of Grod,' either in week-day or Sunday schools. 

Mr. Charles wished chiefly to teach those children to read the 
Bible in their own language; and as the work advanced, the 
principles and morals of the people, where the schools had been 
instituted, visibly improved: soon the whole country was filled 
with schools of one kind or another, and then a general concern 
for eternal things began to appear in many large districts. 

■ He paid every teacher 12^. a year. Three quarters of a year 
were found sufficient to teach the children to read the Bible well, 
in Welsh; and then Mr. Charles visited the schools by turns, 
and catechised publicly,—a plan suited to a wild and mountainous 
district. 



ORIGIN or THE BIBLE SOCIETY. 


221 


After a while, the parents also began to attend the schools, and 
the teachers did not refuse to accept grown-up scholars. Many 
an old person was obliged to buy spectacles for the sake of learn¬ 
ing to read the word of God, for neither age nor dimness of sight 
deterred them. The young often spent part of the night in 
learning chapters, or searching the Scriptures on points given 
them to seek out and prove. Boys and girls from eight to six¬ 
teen learned whole books of the Bible; parents and children re¬ 
cited together; and one little girl is mentioned, who, at five years 
old, could repeat a hundred chapters, and went on learning an¬ 
other every week. 

This will remind you of the children of the Vaudois, before 
mentioned, whose parents taught them so to lay up the word of 
God in their hearts, that it could not be taken away from them. 
They, too, lived among mountains and rocks, as these Welsh chil¬ 
dren did; but the poor, persecuted Vaudois could never enjoy 
meetings such as were sometimes held in North Wales, where 
several schools met, that they might be publicly catechised to¬ 
gether. They were frequently held when the Sabbath was fine, 
on which occasions the children, accompanied by their teachers, 
walked perhaps ten miles, in the quiet, early morning, to the 
appointed place, from many a cottage hidden among the hills. 
Twenty schools would thus be assembled— 

<‘In the still valley, with the mquptains round;" 
and to this vast concourse of persons Mr. Charles preached, after 
the examination had been concluded. 

We are told, that, in the year 1802, as he was walking in the 
streets of Bala, he met with a child who attended his ministry. 
He inquired if she could repeat the text from which he had 
preached on the previous Sunday: she was silent, and the in¬ 
quiry was repeated. At length she answered, ^‘The weather has 
been so bad that I could not get to read the Bible.^^ The reason 
of this was soon ascertained: there was no copy to which she 
could gain access, either at her own home, or among her friends; 
and she was accustomed to walk seven miles over the hills, every 
week, to a place where she could obtain a Welsh Bible, for the 



222 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


purpose of reading the chapter from which the minister took his 
text. During that week, the cold and stormy weather, it seems, 
had hindered her journey. Are we, who have Bibles of our own, 
always so anxious to consult them after we have listened to a 
sermon ? 

Another incident, proving the want of the Scriptures in Wales, 
may be mentioned. / 

Twelve Welsh peasants subscribed together to purchase a copy 
of the Bible, which, like the schools, was to circulate among the 
hills. Each family was to keep it a month, and then pass it for¬ 
ward. On its arrival among them, an old man, who had been 
the last subscriber, finding his name at the end of the list, wept 
bitterly, saying, “Alas! it will be twelve months before it comes 
to me, and I dare say I shall be gone before that time into an¬ 
other world V’ 

Mr. Charles was deeply grieved that there were so few Bibles 
in Wales,—so few in comparison with the wants of the people. 
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge had, in addition 
to former supplies, printed 10,000 Bibles, and in the year 1799 
this edition was distributed. They were no sooner published 
than sold. Not a single copy was left, and still not a fourth part 
of the country was supplied. The society above named hesitated 
about printing another edition; and, notwithstanding the earnest 
entreaties of the Rev. T. Jones, of Creaton, (who, like Mr. Charles, 
felt for his countrymen,) seconded by the Bishop of Peterborough 
and others, all hopes of receiving further supplies from that 
quarter were abandoned. Hence it became necessary to devise 
some other means to provide Bibles for Wales. “The joy of 
those who received the Bibles amounted to exultation, while the 
grief of such as could not obtain a copy fell little short of an- 
guish.^^* 

In December, 1802, Mr. Charles visited London, intending to 
interest his friends in certain plans for securing his object. The 
subject of the Bibles was much on his mind; and, one morning. 


Owen’s ‘‘History of the Bible Society/’ p. 11. 





ORIGIN OF THE BIBLE SOCIETY. 


223 


lying awake and thinking, the idea of having a society for dis¬ 
tributing the Bible alone, on a plan similar to that of the Beli- 
gious Tract Society, established in London, occurred to him. He 
was so pleased with it, that he instantly arose, and went out to 
consult with friends, with a view to carry out this idea. 

The first friend he met with was Mr. Tarn, who was one of the 
committee of the Tract Society; and at the next meeting, Mr. 
Charles was introduced, and represented, with all the ardour of 
his character, the dearth of Bibles in his native principality, and 
the longing desire of the Welsh to have them. At the moment 
when this appeal was made for Bibles for the principality, the 
Rev. Joseph Hughes, who was at that time one of the secretaries 
of the Tract Society, gave expression to these memorable words: 

Surely a society might he formed for the purpose; and if for 
Wales, why not also for the empire and the world?^’ In this 
thought, all present shared and rejoiced. The meeting instructed 
its secretary to follow up the suggestion, and prepared a letter, 
inviting Christians of every name to unite to form a society to 
send the word of God, without note or comment, all over the world. 

On the 7th of March, 1804, the British and Foreign Bible 

Society was actually esta¬ 
blished, at a meeting held 
in a room at the London 
Tavern, in Bishopsgate- 
street, about 300 persons 
being present. On that 
very spot, at the commence¬ 
ment of its Jubilee Year, 
its friends met^once more, 
but there was only one out 
of this number (the vene¬ 
rable Hr. Steinkopff) spared 
to join hands with the pre¬ 
sent supporters of the old 
and tried society,—a so¬ 
ciety which has furnished 





224 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


a platform on which all Christians could so harmoniously unite in 
one labour of love, and which has gone on, notwithstanding 
difficulties and objections, doing its own work, conquering and to 
conquer, in every region to which its operations have been ex¬ 
tended. 

In his History of the Bible Society,^' the Rev. John Owen, 
a clergyman of the Church of England, who early became one of 
its secretaries, has given a touching account of the effect of this 
first meeting on his own mind. He had received during the 
previous summer, from Mr. Hughes, two copies of his essay, 
entitled, The Excellence of the Holy Scriptures: an Argument 
for their more General Dispersion,’^ with a request that he would 
accept one for his own use, and present the other to the Bishop 
of London. He did present the one copy as requested, but 
took little pains either to understand or recommend the other 
in fact, he scarcely thought of it again, until he received a cir¬ 
cular letter inviting him to attend the meeting for the formation 
of the society; and then, perceiving the name of his intimate 
and valued friend, Granville Sharp, Esq., at the head of the sig¬ 
natures, he was induced to attend, though almost against his 
will. On entering the room, he had scarcely taken the station 
assigned to him by the committee, before^he perceived, as he 
says, to his great astonishment, that three of this committee, from 
their dress, and from their wearing their hats, were Quakers. 

Now, Mr. Owen at that time shared deeply in the popular 
prejudice and belief, that the Quakers, or, more properly, mem¬ 
bers of The Society of Friends,” did not read or love the 
Bible; and noble is his confession, that his after-experience of 
their conduct in the British and Foreign Bible Society repeatedly 
made him ashamed of this prejudice. 

The business of the day was opened by Robert Cowie, Esq.; 
William Alers Hankey, Esq., followed, and was succeeded by 
Samuel Mills, Esq., and the Rev. J. Hughes. Each spoke of 
the want of the Holy Scriptures throughout the world, and urged 
the necessity of fresh means of supply, in a strain of good sense 
and temperate zeal. 



FORMATION OF THE BIBLE SOCIETY. 


225 


Mr. Owen sat and listened, and felt that he must give assent, 
though with half reluctance; for the thought of uniting with 
all denominations of dissenters, for any purpose on earth, was 
exceedingly distasteful to him; hut when good Dr. Steinkopff, 
a German Lutheran clergyman, arose, the representation he gave 
of the scarcity of the Scriptures, which he had himself observed 
in foreign parts, the unaffected simplicity and tender pathos of 
his appeal for his own countrymen, subdued at once both the mind 
and heart of Mr. Owen; and, ‘‘ by an impulse which he had 
neither the inclination nor the power to disobey,'^ he rose and 
expressed his conviction that such a society was needed; and 
that its establishment should not be delayed. 

There had been hitherto no point where Christians, for ages 
kept asunder through different systems of discipline in their 
communities, and regarding each other too often with a sort of 
pious horror, could meet, to make one united and loving effort 
against the evil which is in the world; but Mr. Owen now felt, 
that the British and Foreign Bible Society would afford this 
meeting-point; for that, whatever might be the differences of 
opinion and discipline, all who became its members would de¬ 
clare that they belonged to the most ancient and venerable Church 
of the Book; and, in the desire to give it to all nations, the 
multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one 
soul.^^ 

In a letter from Mr. Tarn to Mr. Charles, describing this first 
meeting, and telling him that 700^. had been subscribed upon 
the spot, he says, ^^The Bev. John Owen did the cause great 
service. He spoke, of his own accord, after the other friends, 
and, in a most powerful, argumentative, and scriptural manner, 
showed that the society was founded on the sure word and 
promises of God.^^ 

Mr. Charles was not present at the formation of the society. 
He was at home among his schools and his people; but he re¬ 
joiced to hear of it, and took no honour to himself. He exerted 
all his influence to obtain subscriptions for the support of the 
new society, and he and his Welsh friends prayed much for it ; 



226 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


SO that the contributions of the principality, in the first year, 
amounted to nearly 1900Z., ^^contributed chiefly,says Mr. 
Owen, ^^by the plain and lower orders of people.^^ Dr. Warner, 
the bishop of Bangor, and Dr. Burgess, the bishop of St. David’s, 
were, however, among the earliest supporters of the society 
in Wales. 

Around this point of union soon rallied many of the noble and 
the good, who were desirous to come back to the two grand, 
simple principles of union which prevailed in the early church, 
to hold fast the faithful wordf and to love one another” 

Mr. Owen took great care to make Bishop Porteus, the bishop 
of London, with whom he was on intimate terms, regularly ac¬ 
quainted with the proceedings of the committee; and the bishop, 
who felt a lively interest in their affairs, recommended Lord 
Teignmouth to become their president. Wilberforce, too, the 
never-to-be-forgotten friend of the slave, at their second general 
meeting, encouraged the society to proceed in its work with 
an ardour and a discretion becoming its object and its end.’^ 

We can never sufficiently admire the overruling power and 
grace of God, who had provided instruments so well fitted to the 
great work of conducting the arrangements of this society, as 
Mr. Owen and Mr. Hughes, its first secretaries. These good 
men are now beyond the award of human praise; therefore we 
may look back upon the points of character which constituted 
their fitness. For six weeks after their memorable meeting of 
the 7th of March, 1804, the Bev. Josiah Pratt (who likewise 
filled the office of secretary to the Church Missionary Society for 
twenty-one years) had kindly consented to fill the office of clerical 
secretary, till a suitable person could be found to undertake it. 
During the short period, he effected the reorganization of the 
committee, which was to consist of thirty-six members of all de¬ 
nominations of Christian*, and concerted a plan which should 
define their respective "proportions. 

Having established this point, Mr. Pratt begged to present to 
the committee the Rev. John Owen, in his own stead—the duties 
of his other secretaryship being found, by himself, more than 



JOHN OWEN—JOSEPH HUGHES. 


227 


sufficient; and though he thus voluntarily ceased to he connected 
officially with the concerns of the Bible Society, he continued its 
firm friend and advocate to the close of his life. 

There is, we are sorry to say, no biography of Mr. Owen, 
which we can condense for your benefit ’ but his name will live 
for ever on the records of the Bible Society. For the last 
eighteen years of his life, he devoted himself almost entirely to 
its interests, with talents that enlivened every topic, and a 
temper that conciliated every heart.’^ From the time that, under 
the influence of the Spirit of God, at its first meeting, he felt the 
necessity for such a union of Christians, and such a forgetting 
of personal prejudices, for the sake of the wide circulation of the 
Divine word, he never wavered. He had enthroned the Bible 
Society in his heart; and he thought, and spoke, and wrote, 
from day to day, as if all his interests were staked on its support 
and advancement.^^ 

God had endowed him eminently with the tongue of an elo¬ 
quent speaker, and the pen of a ready writer.^V He had the 
higher praise of a disciplined judgment, and a piercing intelli¬ 
gence, combined with frankness, candour, urbanity, and diligence, 
which hardly allowed itself a pause. Whether he ascended 
the pulpit, or entered the crowded hall, or prosecuted the details 
of business, or carried on a vast correspondence, or undertook the 
task of the historian, or became a fellow-traveller, or spared a 
few hours to the "social circle, or joined his family, he was still 
the gifted,the judicious, the admirable Owen.’’ 

These particulars are chiefly derived from the affectionate yet 
considerate statements of the man who knew him best, in con¬ 
nection with the society which they both served and loved—the 
Bev. Joseph Hughes, minister of a Baptist church at Battersea, 
who for almost thirty years was also the faithful and invaluable 
secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. 

It was he whose warm heart and enlarged views first dictated 
the words, ‘‘If for Wales, why not for the world?” He also 
wrote the essay which first announced the plan of “the pro¬ 
posed society,” deeply interesting to read, now that his voice 



228 


THE BOOK AND ITIS STORY. 


is silent in the grave, while 
the society keeps its Jubi¬ 
lee, and is fulfilling its pro¬ 
mise to the whole earth. 

In this essay, the socie¬ 
ties which had already be¬ 
gun to distribute the Scrip¬ 
tures are enumerated. They 
are as follows :— 

The Society for Promo¬ 
ting Christian Knowledge, 
founded in 1698; 

The Society for the Pro¬ 
pagation of the Grospel in 
Foreign Parts, in 1701; 

Hughes. The Society, in Scotland, 

for Propagating Christian Knowledge, in 1709; 

The Society for Promoting Keligious Knowledge among the 
Poor, in 1750; 

The Bible Society for the . Use of the Army and Navy, in 
1780; 

The Society for Support and Encouragement of Sunday Schools, 
1785; 

After describing their arrangements, which, though excellent, 
were insufficient to meet the wants even of Christendom alone, 
Mr. Hughes sketched the idea of the society which should be 
supported by Christians in general^ should smile alike on Britons 
and on foreigners, should conquer the wide empire of darkness, 
and, by the light of truth, should scatter the watchful spirits 
that guard its frontier.’^ 

The “ universal effort,’^ which Mr. Hughes suggested, has been 
made, and the light of truth has gone forth, and is welcomed by 

the nationsbut it is for you of this generation to take up 
the work which your fathers have begun. We hope to show you 
what fifty years have seen accomplished; hut it is as 7 iothing, to 
the magnitude of that which remains to be done. 






THE SOCIETY THE RESULT OF EDUCATION. 


229 


We need more men like Hughes, and Owen, and Steinkopff, 
with their self-denying energy, and their sanctified temper, for 
the service of the British and Foreign Bible Society. We require 
also that the gold of this world should flow into this noble chan¬ 
nel, with something like the tide which attends a single scene of 
festive pleasure—such as the race-course at Epsom: and we 
believe that, when God sees fit, we shall have it; for, at the 
close of this fifty years, are not China and India^ with their 500 
millions of souls, yet unevangelized, though the Scriptures are 
translated into their languages, and many of the harriers to their 
circulation have been removed ? 

With this fact before our eyes, is one hundred thousand pounds 
too much to look for from this age of gold, as its Jubilee-offering 
to the Book of God, from all the world ? 

Is there any one who can consider the Book itself, and mark 
its history, although struck only in broad outline to arouse young 
minds to seek it further, and yet refuse to aid in this noble 
service ? 

We know that the class to whom this volume is more particu¬ 
larly addressed, prefer facts to inferences, example to precept, 
anecdotes to statistics, and principles sink deepest into their 
minds by the power of biography and narrative. They must, 
however, follow us for a little while into the statements of the 
first proceedings of the society, before we claim their further 
attention to the lives and histories of its secretaries. 

In concluding this chapter, we may observe, that the Bible 
Society would not have been, at the commencement of the nine¬ 
teenth century, the want of the age, but for the advance of popu¬ 
lar education, which had then begun to prepare the world to 
receive the seed of God’s holy word. The Sunday-school Socie¬ 
ties, the Missionary Institutions, the National, and British and 
Foreign School Societies, the design of which is to educate the 
labouring and manufacturing classes, all arose about this time, 
and in one luminous host led the way into the kingdom of % 
darkness; each and all called upon the Bible Society to supply 
them with the Scriptures, that they might dispense them abroad. 

20 



230 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


The schools could not do without cheap Bibles. The mission¬ 
aries required the Bible in ancibnt and modern versions. The 
united action of all those societies has distinguished the nine¬ 
teenth century above every other. It is the age in which people 
are educated, and the age in which provision is made to supply 
them freely with the Holy Scriptures. 


CHAPTEB II. 

Arrival of Bibles in Wales—Answer to Prayer for Mr. Charles—His visit to 
Ireland—His Funeral—Want of the Scriptures in Scotland and in France— 
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and its Results—Sufferings of the Hu¬ 
guenots and Vaudois—Reaction of Infidelity—Desire of England to circulate 
the Bible in France—Oberlin and the Ban de la Roche—Scripture Readers— 
Bible Societies at Walbach and Nuremberg—Scarcity of the Scriptures even 
in Europe—Their Circulation among French and Spanish Prisoners of War— 
Bible Society at Berlin—Willingness of a Priest to distribute the New Tes¬ 
tament—The Field of Labour in Asia—Chinese Gospels in the British Mu¬ 
seum—India and the Tamil Language—Africa—America. 

One of the earliest efforts of the committee of the Bible So¬ 
ciety was, naturally, to provide an edition of Welsh Bibles and 
Testaments : they first inquired, as has ever been their practice 
in like circumstances, whether a previous revision might not be 
necessary; and since this was the case, some delay necessarily 
took place, so that the supply of 20,000 Bibles, and 6000 large 
Testaments, printed for the first time by stereotype plates, was 
not ready for distribution until July, 1806. An eyewitness 
thus describes its reception : When the arrival of the cart was 
announced, which carried the first sacred load, the Welsh pea¬ 
sants went out in crowds to meet it, welcomed it as the Israelites 
did the ark of old, drew it into the town, and eagerly bore off 
every copy as rapidly as they could be dispersed. The young 
people consumed the whole night in reading it, and labourers 




REMARKABLE INCIDENTS. 


231 


carried it with them to the fields, that they might enjoy it during 
the intervals of their labour.’^ 

Mr. Charles, with whose memory we cannot but connect these 
Welsh Bibles, was travelling, in the autumn of 1799, over a 
mountain in Merionethshire, one frosty night, and had his hand 
frost-bitten: an illness followed, and his life was in danger. 
Under these circumstances, his friends met to pray for his resto¬ 
ration, and one person, alluding to the fifteen years added to 
Hezekiah’s life, of old, entreated God to spare Mr. Charles’s life 
also fifteen years: Fifteen years, 0 Lord! add hut fifteen years 
to the life of thy servant! Spare him for fifteen years more to 
thy church and thy people!” Mr. Charles heard of this prayer, 
and it made a deep impression on his mind. He mentioned it 
to several friends during the last years of his life, for his death 
did occur just at the close of the fifteen years. 

It was during this period of fifteen years that the most im¬ 
portant acts of his life took place—the most valuable of his works 
were written—the complete establishment of the Sunday-schools 
was effected; and it was during this period he was made one of 
the honourable instruments employed by Providence to originate 
the Bible Society. What great and glorious answers were these 
to the fervent prayer of the poor, simple, old Christian pilgrim 
at Bala! 

Mr. Charles was a most industrious man, usually rising between 
four and five in the morning. He lived ten years after the com¬ 
mencement of the Bible Society. His visit to Ireland was paid, 
in company with Mr. Hughes, Dr. Bogue, and S. Mills, Esq., for 
the Hibernian Society, taking with them one thousand Testa¬ 
ments to distribute on their way. He noticed that the poor in 
their cabins were very civil and communicative, but entirely 
ignorant of the Bible. In Ireland, at this time, not above a third 
even of Protestant families possessed a Bible, while^among Bo- 
man Catholics, far more numerous, a Bible was probably not to 
be found in more than one out of 500 families. He was of 
opinion that religion could not be diffused among them without 
Bibles, and preaching in their own language, and schools to teach 



232 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


tliem to read Irisli. have not inet/^ says he, ^^with one 

person who could read Irish, and there are no elementary hooks 
in the language. Circulating schools might do‘wonders here.” 

All these four measures of improvement have been adopted. 
Bibles have been printed in Irish, schools have been opened to 
teach it. Scripture-readers are appointed, and the gospel is 
preached to the people in their own tongue. Much of this good 
has issued from the visit of Mr. Charles, Mr. Hughes, and their 
companions. 

The former was called not long after this visit to receive his 
reward. He died in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and his good 
wife followed him three weeks afterward. 

All who had ever known him spoke of him as the good Mr. 
Charles.” Vast multitudes attended his funeral, and in pro¬ 
cession sang hymns from Bala to Llanycil, the parish church, 
about a mile distant. He had been an epistle of Christ, known 
and read of all men.” His very countenance was heavenly in its 
expression, and showed the serene mind within. By his works, 
^‘he, being dead, yet speaketh.” 


Having thus ascertained the state of Wales, and of Ireland, at 
the commencement of its operations, the attention of the Bible 
Society was about this time called also to the G-aelic Scriptures; 
and it was ascertained that in the Highlands of Scotland very 
few persons were in possession of a complete Bible. The Gaelic 
Bible had been published in four volumes, and about one in forty 
persons might possess one of these. A complete copy was, from 
its cost, quite beyond the ability of any poor person to purchase, 
and, in fact, was not easily to be procured at all. In the Isle of 
Skye, then containing about 15,000 persons, and since so memo¬ 
rable for misery and famine, scarcely one Gaelic Bible was to be 
found. 

A circular was in the summer of 1807 despatched to the minis¬ 
ters of the Church of Scotland throughout the Highlands, saying, 
that the whole Gaelic Bible would be sold to subscribers, in Octo- 




THE GAELIC BIBLE—FRANCE. 


233 


ber following, at 3s. 3o^., and tbe Testament at lOr?.;—information 
which excited the liveliest joy and gratitude in every manse and 
cottage. I do not suppose,says one minister, that, among 
4000 souls under my pastoral care, there are a dozen Gaelic 
Bibles.^^ Another says, “ We are very grateful for this prospect 
of providing ourselves with the Holy Scriptures in our native 
mother-tongue,—a thing long wished for over all the Highlands 
of Scotland. Many of the poor of Glasgow, on hearing of these 
cheap Scriptures in their native tongue, expressed their gratitude 
with tears of joy. Each copy has hitherto cost 25s. at least.^^ 


There was, therefore, proof enough that the society was wanted 
at home. But while it began to fulfil its mission throughout the 
isles of Britain, it had also to look abroad, and in Boman Catholic, 
Mohammedan, and Heathen countries^ to find the word of God 
comparatively and almost utterly unknown. 

We purpose to give, in the first place, a picture of the want of 
it in France. 

You have heard of the two translations of the Bible which had 
been made in the sixteenth century, by Olivetan and Be Sacy, and 
carried forth to a wide extent by colporteurs. There were various 
horrible decrees issued by the parliament at Paris against the book- 
carriers, who had travelled all over the country, and excited there¬ 
by, to the fullest extent, the wrath of all those who wished to hide 
the Book. Beza, in his Ecclesiastical History of the Eeformed 
Churches,^' quotes the names of several Bible-colporteurs, who 
expiated in the flames, and by the most dreadful tortures, the 
crime of having distributed the word of God. 

After this, the very existence of colporteurs in France ceased; 
and then, toward the close of the seventeenth century, on the 
2d of October, 1685, came the fatal revocation of the edict of 
Nantes. Nantes is a town in Britanny, where Henry IV. had 
signed an edict in their favour, proclaiming liberty of conscience, 
and appointing places of safety for the Huguenots : this edict had 
passed in 1598. 


20» 




334 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


The old chancellor of Louis XIY., Le Tellier, at the age of 
eighty-three, being a violent Romanist, and thinking he did God 
service, requested the king to afford him the consolation, before 
he died, of signing the revocation of this edict. His desire was 
accomplished, and all the Huguenots in the kingdom were aban¬ 
doned to military execution. The dying chancellor, on signing 
the edict, actually quoted the beautiful words of Simeon. 

Then began the destruction of the Protestant churches, the shut¬ 
ting up of the schools, and the banishment of all ministers of the 
reformed faith, within fifteen days. Compliance was to be en¬ 
forced with the sword; troops were spread over Normandy, Bri- 
tanny, Languedoc, and Provence; and, by their bitter cruelties, a 
fourth of the kingdom was depopulated, its trade ruined, the whole 
country being abandoned to the pillage of dragoons. 

By this edict,^^ says St. Simon, punishment and torture 
awaited thousands, families were stripped of their possessions, re¬ 
lations armed against each other, and our manufactures transferred 
to the stranger. The world saw crowds of their fellow-creatures 
proscribed, naked, fugitive, guilty of no crime, and yet driven to 
seek an asylum in foreign lands. Their own country was, in the 
mean time, subjected to the lash and the galleys, the noble, the 
affluent, the aged, the weak, often distinguished by their rank no 
less than by their piety and virtue;—and all this on no other ac¬ 
count than that of their religion. Meanwhile, vast numbers were 
either forced to conform, or feigned to do so, and sacrificed their 
conscience to their worldly interests. Within twenty-four hours, 
the same persons were frequently conducted from tortures to abju¬ 
ration, from abjuration to the communion-table, attended to each 
alike by the common executioner.^^* 

^^On the most moderate computation, the numbers who left the 
kingdom were 400,000, while an equal number perished, on going 
into exile, of famine or fatigue, in prison, in the galleys, and on 
the scaffold; and a million besides, seemingly converted, maintained 
in secret, amid tears and desolation, the faith of their forefathers. 


^ St. Simon’s “Memoirs.” 




REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. ^235 

^^Bossuet; Flecilier, and tlae Homan hierarchy, were in rap¬ 
tures at the daily accounts of conversion: 6000 abjuring in one 
place, 10,000 in another, the churches could not hold the con¬ 
verts; but it is not thus that the real conversion of mankind is 
effected; dragoons and stripes will never permanently enchain 
the human mind; and this single act of Louis XIV. did more to 
enfeeble France, than all his victories had done to strengthen 
her.’^* 

Of course this persecution extended to the Vaudois valleys. 
There, their inhabitants were henceforth and for ever to cease 
and discontinue all the exercises of their religion: all the churches 
and schools were to he razed to the ground; and whosoever on 
their sick-beds refused the sacraments of the Popish Church, 
were to he drawn out on a hurdle, and thrown upon the way-side 
to die. Every new-born child was, at a week old, to he taken to 
the cur4, and admitted into the Boman Catholic Church, or the 
mother was to be publicly whipped with rods, and the father 
sentenced for five years to the galleys. These and other mon¬ 
strous threats, the Vaudois, acting as one man, resolved to resist 
to the last gasp, and they did so; hut, oh! at what a price!—^be¬ 
trayed and massacred with cruelties of which we will tell you no 
more. Out of the 15,000 Vaudois, who constituted the popula¬ 
tion of the valleys a few months before, only 2656 reached a 
refuge in Geneva. One half of the generous population came out 
to meet them at the Arve, the river which bounds their sublime 
territory, and there competed, as for an honour, who should re¬ 
ceive into his hospitable dwelling these poor sufferers. From 
Geneva they were afterward scattered to Brandenburg, to Wur- 
temburg, to Holland, to America; and so, through the Vaudois 
valleys, reigned once more the silence of death and desolation. 

^‘But it was by enduring, not infficting tortures, that the 
apostles established Christianity on an imperishable foundation. 
The tears of the innocent Huguenots were registered in heaven. 
They brought down an awful visitation on the third and fourth 


^ Alison’s ‘‘ History of Europe.” 




236 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


generations; and from the revocation of the edict of Nantes is to 
he dated the commencement of a series of causes and effects which 
closed the reign of Louis XIV. in mourning, and brought on the 
reaction of infidelity and atheism, which issued in the Revolution 
that overthrew the throne and the church, and covered France 
with indelible stains of bloodshed and disgrace.^^ 


In November, 1804, a letter was received from M. Oberlin, 
the pastor of the Ban de la Roche, a dreary and secluded terri¬ 
tory in Alsace, at twelve leagues’ distance from Strasbourg, of a 
very interesting character. The Ban de la Roche was favoured 
in a peculiar degree with the benefits of education amid sur¬ 
rounding ignorance, through the labours of this excellent Lutheran 
clergyman. Like Mr. Charles of Bala, he prepared his people to 
receive the Scriptures, and excited the desire for them, and at 
the same time he sought in every way to improve their temporal 
condition, teaching them to make roads, build cottages, raise 
crops, etc.: still they were extremely poor, and destitute of the 
word of God. He therefore, at Basle, at great expense, procured 
three copies of the French Bible, from which purchase ensued 
most gratifying results. Three poor villagers, to whom they 
were given, being devoted Bible-missionaries, went from cottage 
to cottage to read to the inmates the sacred volume, lending it to 
one for a day, to another for a shorter period, every time that a 
desire for such loan was manifested. These were indeed colpor¬ 
teurs, whose labours were only stopped by the wearing out of the 
three copies, passing, as they did, through so many hands little 
used to take care of books. 

Then Pastor Oberlin heard of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society, and begged its help in his work: to him the committee 
made their first grant in favour of France, of 20?. His letter, 
describing the three devoted women to whom he meant to give 
the first new Bibles, is preserved among its records. Sophia 
Bernard,—^who had undertaken the support and education of 
three helpless boys, whom their wicked father often trampled 




THE PASTOR OBERLIN. 


237 


under his feet, when, starving with hunger, they dared to cry for 
food, and who had likewise saved the lives of four Roman Catholic 
children, a prey to want and famine, supporting all seven by the 
labour of her own hands, and bringing up these poor children in 
the most careful and excellent manner,—was to have a new Bible, 
considering that her own was so often lent out in different Roman 
Catholic villages. 

A second was to be given to Maria Schepler, who lived in a 
part of the parish where all the people were so poor that they 
were obliged to lend their clothes to each other, when they at¬ 
tended the communion. Maria was mother, benefactress, and 
teacher, to the whole village where she lived, and also to neigh¬ 
bouring districts; she, too, brought up orphans, kept a school for 
them, and was always lending her Bible to those who were desti¬ 
tute of it. 

The third Bible was to be given to Catherine Scheiddegger, 
another mother to orphans, and teacher of the poor: ^‘and the 
eyes of all of them,^^ said Oberlin, ^^will overflow with grateful 
tears, if they are favoured with the present of a Bible. 

It is worthy of notice that the active benevolence of thousands 
of the ladies of England, as well as in France and other coun¬ 
tries, in promoting the interests of the society during the last 
half century, may be said to have derived its origin from the 
humble efforts of these poor women in the Ban de la Roche. 
This was the small rivulet among the mountains that has given 
rise to the majestic river. 

Mr. Owen visited M. Oberlin’s parish in 1818, and saw ^Hwo 
of these interesting peasants,—the other had been removed to 
her rest. He told them that he felt as if he had known them 
for nearly fourteen years, and that they had stirred up the zeal 
of many to labour after their example. ^ Oh, sir said Sophia 
Bernard, Hhis does indeed humble us;’ adding many remarks in 
relation to their obscurity, the imperfection of their works, and 
the honour they considered it to labour for Him who had done 
every thing for them.” 

From the first year of the establishment of the British and 



238 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Foreign Bible Society, Pastor Oberlin, bis son Henry, and M. 
Legrand, formed a small committee in the parish of Waldbach, 
which became a central point for scattering the Scriptures 
throughout France; and more than 10,000 Bibles and Testa¬ 
ments were circulated throughout that country before the Paris 
Bible Society was formed. During a journey in the south of 
France, in 1815, for that Society, the excellent Henry Oberlin 
caught a severe cold, in assisting to extinguish a fire in som^ 
town; and, returning to the Ban de la Boche, died of consump¬ 
tion, amid the regrets of his friends and neighbours. 


At Nuremberg, also, an imperial city of Germany, a Bible 
Society was formed, in 1814, to co-operate with that in London, 
to which the British and Foreign Bible Society presented 100?., 
to enable it immediately to print 5000 German Testaments, selling 
them at fivepence each. This auxiliary proved “the cradle of 
our continental greatness.^^ 

It is very interesting to refer back to these small beginnings of 
the British and Foreign Bible Society itself, and to the rise of its 
first tributary streams. The number of these steadily and rapidly 
increased; for the secretaries made it their chief business, in its 
early days, to obtain all the information they could, respecting the 
want of the Scriptures in every part of the world. 

But it was now a time of war all over Europe—a time which 
may be distinctly remembered by some of the parents of our young 
friends, but which they, the children of an almost forty years’ 
peace, have little power to realize. 

Great Britain, from her immense resources, was universally 
allowed to be the arbiter of nations, and the most powerful of 
kingdoms; and after the peace of Amiens in 1802, was engaged 
in hostilities against the power of Napoleon. 

Among the French and Spanish prisoners of war, the Bible 
Society occupied itself in distributing the Scriptures in their native 
languages. They directed 2000 Spanish Testaments to be printed, 
and expended 100?. upon the purchase of Testaments in French, 




PRISONERS OP WAR. 


239 


preparing, meanwliile, a stereotype edition of the latter. It ap¬ 
peared, that out of a number of 6000 French prisoners at Ply¬ 
mouth, nearly half were able to read, and out of 1700 Spanish, 
800. A correspondent says, Many sought the books with tears 
and entreaties, and received the words of eternal life } since which, 
I have witnessed the most pleasing sight that my eyes ever beheld 
—nearly one thousand poor prisoners sitting round the prison-walls, 
reading the word of God, with an apparent eagerness that would 
have put many professing Christians to the blush.'^ 

From time to time, exchange of prisoners was made, and thus 
the word of God crossed the water, with the returning soldiers. 
Several of these stray Bibles were known to have led to the 
foundation of Protestant churches ; and some of the present col¬ 
porteurs have been powerfully aided in their mission by men who 
were formerly prisoners of war in England. 

Besides making this happy use of the quarrels of nations, the 
society continued to avail itself of every possible point of access 
to the continent, and to aid every association established abroad, 
to sell the Scriptures in their own lands, at reduced prices. 


The foundation of a Bible Society was laid at Berlin, in 1806, 
and received the sanction of his majesty the King of Prussia. To 
this institution, as to that of Nuremberg, 100?. was voted by the 
British and Foreign Bible Society. 


If this was the field of labour that lay before the society in 
Europe, when it passed over to Asia it beheld almost the whole 
of that wide continent yet to be possessed. Its first attention was 
drawn toward China, by the notice of a manuscript, in Chinese, 
existing in the British Museum, of the chief part of the New 
Testament, which it was at first proposed that the society should 
print, with the view of circulating it among 360 millions of people. 
It was found, however, that owing to the intricacy of the Chinese 
characters, this could only be done at the expense of two guineas 





240 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


eacli volume, and the intention was relinquished until a future 
day. In the mean time, the indefatigable Dr. Morrison went to 
work in his cellar, at Canton, on a fresh translation, to which, 
however, the former was of some service. 

As we have before observed, Grod provided men for the secreta¬ 
ries, just such he needed; and now he provided suitable men for 
translators, or rather for the foundation of the work of translation j 
for that, during the last half century, has in every version made 
progress hy degrees toward perfection. 

When Carey, Marshman, and Ward sat down to render the 
word of God into the fifteen polished languages of India, with its 
millions of souls, that word existed only in the Tamil, the transla¬ 
tion of Schultze, the missionary of the Society for Promoting 
Christian Knowledge. The important territory in which the 
Tamil is spoken includes Madras, Tanjore^ Trichi nopoly, Madura, 
Tinnevelly, and Coimbatoor. It came under British government 
in the year 1801, and the inhabitants have been estimated at more 
than six millions. They are chiefly Hindus of the Brahminical 
sect. 

The scarcity of the Scriptures in the Tamil country was first 
pressed upon the notice of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 
by Dr. Buchanan, in 1£06. He speaks of ten or twelve thousand 
Protestant Christians, of whom not one in a hundred had a New 
Testament. In consequence, the committee bought up all the 
copies of the Tamil Scriptures that could be obtained, and sent 
them to Tanjore in 1810, where they were received with the 
most lively gratitude. 

The spirit in which the society’s liberal grants of help to the 
missionaries and translators in India were made, is shown by the 
letter they wrote to accompany the gift: The committee would 
by no means have you understand, that their design of aiding you 
in your glorious work is ended with these donations: on the con¬ 
trary, they consider your undertaking as vast and progressive, and 
are determined to sustain you in it, to the utmost of their ability, 
by liberal and successive supplies.” This was a letter written in 
1810. 



THE SCRIPTURES IN AMERICA. 


241 


Meanwhile, over the islands of the Pacific and the Indian 
Archipelago lay the vail of deep darkness. The state of Africa 
was that of unexplored ignorance, except that here and there the 
margin of the south was illumined by Bibles from Holland; hut 
for the interior there was no Bible. 

The only region upon which the light of revelation could be 
said in any degree to shine was the northern line, where Arabic 
is spoken; for, although versions of the Coptic and Ethiopic had, 
as we have seen, in early times been made, yet by the mass of the 
people they were neither read nor understood. 


America, in her northern regions, fared more generously: the 
colonies of England were partially supplied. The Bible consti¬ 
tuted the inheritance of the magnificent Union of the States : the 
pilgrim fathers had conveyed it in the Mayflower,^^ in the year 
1620; Oglethorpe bore it to Georgia, and thus it was embalmed 
in the memory of his people. Captain Norton, a chief of six na¬ 
tions of Indians in Upper Canada, translated the Gospel of John 
into the Mohawk dialect—the current language of those six nations 
—and, in the first year of its existence, the Bible Society printed 
2000 copies of this Gospel, for circulation in Canada. John 
Eliot’s version of the New Testament, in the Virginian language, 
had been circulated in Massachusetts, in 1661, also to the number 
of 2000 copies; but in Mexico, the western isles, and the king¬ 
doms of the southern hemisphere, although the people were called 
Christians, and acknowledged a belief in revelation, few had ever 
seen a Bible. 


Such was the immense range” on which the British and 
Foreign Bible Society looked forth in the year 1807; and, 
measuring, as they say, from north to south from Iceland to the 
Cape of Good Hope, or from east to west from Hindustan to 
Buenos Ayres, (China was not then open to the Bible,) “they 
saw no other limits to the beneficial operation of this institution, 

21 





242 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


than that which their funds might prescribe; but they indulged 
the animating hope, that, by the progressive efforts of the society, 
in circulating the Holy Scriptures, ^ the earth shall be filled with 
the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the 
sea.^ ” (Hab. ii. 14.) 


CHAPTEK III. 

The Bible Society’s Reports” not dull Books : What it is that they contain— 
The Sway of Great Britain and its Purpose—The World’s Inhabitants, in 
Five Divisions—The Work of the Bible Society among each—The Way it is 
accomplished, by division of Labour, and by various Agents—The Bible So¬ 
ciety like the Banian Tree—Its Fibres taking root in the Protestant Countries, 
first in England, by the Bible Associations and Auxiliaries—The System 
gradually matured—Division of Districts—Ladies’ Committee—The System 
of Co-operation—Objections to the Society—Lord Teignmouth’s Answer— 
Mr. Dealtry’s—Mr. Ward’s—Operations at Home—Extracts from Reports of 
Collectors—The Dying Child—The Old Woman and the Wool—The Bible 
Bees—The Gun and the Bible—Mr. Dudley’s Review—The Death of Mr. 
Owen—Distribution of the Scriptures in Ireland—Anecdotes. 

It is by no means easy to arrange and condense the mass of 
information which we wish to convey to your minds, concerning 
the rise and progress of this most magnificent of societies. 

You are not likely to read through sixteen volumes of Ee- 
ports,^^ five of Monthly Extracts’^ from the correspondence of 
the society, Mr. Owen’s three volumes of its History, and Mr. 
Dudley’s admirable Analysis of its system. It is possible, that, 
in glancing at them in your fathers’ libraries, you may have even 
thought them “ dull books,” or at least books which it did not 
concern ^ou to examine; nevertheless, we shall try and make 
you wish to read them. 

These books contain in truthful detail the history of the pro¬ 
gress of God’s word through the world—of the uttering of his 
voice to all the earth. It is uttered in more majestic (because 
in more perfected) form than it was to Israel at Sinai. The 




GREAT Britain’s sway, and its purpose. 


243 


whole Bible is owrs, ^^upon whom the ends of the world are 
come.” We have not only a Pentateuch, hut a New Testament; 
and freely as we have received, freely we should give,” 

We are not as the Jews were—simply the early guardians of 
the oracles of Grod, but we are their dispensers to all the earth. 
For this God has raised Great Britain to her pre-eminence 
among the nations; for this has he placed under her island 
sway vast continents and distant climes, and has given her a 
dominion so extraordinary, that, as we trace its boundaries, its 
extent seems scarcely to be credible. 

The population of the British Isles alone is greater than that 
of Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Norway, added together; and 
besides her home empire, England holds, in Eurojpey the Chan¬ 
nel Isles, Gibraltar, Malta, and the Ionian Isles. 

In America^ her possessions are Upper and Lower Canada, a 
territory larger than France and Spain; New Brunswick, larger 
than Scotland; Nova Scotia, Prince Edward’s Island, and New¬ 
foundland, comprehending together as great a space as England 
and Wales; with the Hudson’s Bay territory, extending to the 
pole; thirteen islands in the West Indies, with the Bermudas, 
the Bahamas, and the Virgin Isles; Honduras, larger than Hol¬ 
land ; and British Guiana, the size of Wales. 

In Africa^ Sierra Leone, in whose capital, Free-town, she 
has a community of 50,000 freed slaves. Cape Coast Castle, 
and the adjacent settlements; the islands of Ascension and of 
St. Helena; Port Natal, and the Cape Colony, (equal in extent 
to France, and with a climate similar to that of Spain,) to which 
she has lately given a free constitution. 

In Asia, the Mauritius; with other isles in the Indian Ocean; 
Ceylon, the isle of palms, of spices, and of pearls, nearly equal 
in size to Scotland; and India—a kingdom including 448,000 
square miles, yielding a revenue exceeding the revenue of all the 
Bussias, and whose governor-general has at his command an 
army of 300,000 men. 

Farther India, likewise, with its divisions of Malacca and Sin¬ 
gapore; Penang; and Hong Kong, in China; with Australia, 



244 • 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


the island continent, only to be compared in space with three- 
fifths of Europe; Van Diemen’s Land, as large as Ireland; and 
New Zealand, nearly the size of Great Britain itself. 

The Rev. Wm. Arthur, formerly a missionary in India, who 
has given a picture of this vast extent of power, in a lecture de¬ 
livered to the young men of London, observes, that ‘‘ our Queen 
reigns over more Roman Catholics than the Pope, over more 
Mohammedans than the Sublime Porte, and over more Pagans 
than there are in the whole continent of Africa!” 

Now, it is for God’s word’s sake that Great Britain has been 
thus made the mistress of the world. Her people read with glowing 
hearts of her possessions and her conquests, often gained with 
comparatively little bloodshed, and as it were ceded to her ac¬ 
knowledged right, and feel the pride of Britons that they were 
born under her temperate and changeful skies. And can we 
possibly think the history of her noblest deeds, which these 
Bible Reports record, dull and unworthy to be read ? Surely 
those who read and love the Bible—those to whose hearts it has 
effectually revealed its tidings of great joy, and its solace in the 
hour of sorrow—those in whose homes it is the law of love, and 
the rule of faith and practice —must care to know the history of 
that noble society whose object it is not only to distribute this 
Bible in every country of the world, but to put it into the hands 
of every human being. 

You will look with reverence on a Bible Report,” as it is 
called, if you are prepared to understand it —if you have in your 
mind’s eye that portion of the earth, the wide continent, or the 
smiling island, to which the word of God has been carried in its 
own language, whether for the first time, or in repeated abun¬ 
dance, and if you know what has been the need of the word 
there, which called for that supply—if you could see, also, the 
change which the reception of that word has produced, and, if it 
were a heathen country, the moral conduct, the upright dealing, 
the purer manners, and the decorous dress, which, as experience 
testifies, are sure to follow, wherever the reading of the Bible 
becomes general.” 



THE WORK OF THE BIBLE SOCIETY. 


245 


In order, therefore, to assist your memories, we shall divide 
the world into separate regions, not according to their geographi¬ 
cal order, but according to the general religious belief of their 
several inhabitants, and survey the proceedings of the Bible So¬ 
ciety within each range. 

We must have five divisions— 

1. The Protestant countries 

2. The Jews, and remnants op ancient Christian 
Churches. 

3. Those where the Roman Catholic religion and the 
Greek Church prevail. 

4. The Mohammedan countries. 

5. The Heathen or Pagan countries. 

What has been the work of the British and Foreign Bible So¬ 
ciety in each of these ? And in what way, and by whom, was 
it accomplished ? We must answer the latter question first. 

It has been accomplished upon the principle of division of 
labour. Fifty persons, as you have seen, are employed upon the 
mere paper and printing, and binding of a Bible. When the 
Book is in existence, as a book, it is scattered over the world by 
various agents. 

Many laborious servants of the society join to spread it abroad: 
—the missionary, in his exile from his friends and country, his 
own heart cheered by the Book, and his hand distributing it 
wherever he goes; the travelling agent, plying his unwearied 
round of visits,^^ often amid those who care but little to receive 
them, but often also where he is warmly welcomed and encou¬ 
raged;—the depositary and accountant, with their assistants, 
working at their desks with tireless zeal and fidelity for a long 
tenn of years; the invaluable secretaries, carrying on the corre¬ 
spondence with all nations; the translators, who, in the land 
where the language is spoken, sit down to create first, perhaps, 
its grammar and its dictionary, nay, its very letters, before they can 
approach their noble task itself; then the colporteur, in various 
countries and in all weathers, exposed to numerous difl&culties 
and hardships, sometimes received with welcome, it is true, but 

21 # 



246 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 



The Banian Tree. 


at others with unkindness, and even menace, and sometimes 
subject to slanderous accusations and unjust imprisonment; then 
there are the unpaid collectors, the life-blood of the society, who 
also, for the true love of the work, engage in their weekly 
rounds, unnoticed save by Him for whose sake they labour. It 
is by all these that the seed is scattered; the seed is the 
word,^^ and the field is the world.^^ 

It is to the persevering labours of all these, as the Earl of 
Carlisle told us at the late memorable Jubilee meeting, that the 
nations owe their 8000 Bible Societies, their Bibles in 148 lan¬ 
guages, and their forty-six millions of copies—the fruit of the 
first half century of the existence of the Bible Society. Well 
might Mr. Dudley once compare it to the sacred tree of India,* 
bending its branches to the earth, whence they again sprang 
forth, and extended their refreshing shade throughout the land.^^ 
He meant the banian tree, the Jicus Indica^ whose nature it 
is to cover with its branches a space sufficient to shelter a regi- 


*See Dudley’s “Analysis,” p. 135 . 





ENGLAND. 


247 


ment of cavalry, and which is often used as a natural canopy for 
great assemblies. It was at an encampment under one of these 
trees, on the river Sutlej, that Runjeet Singh, the robber cliief, 
compelled Shah. Sujah, the representative^ of a race of kings, to 
yield up to him the Koh-i-noor, that jewel which was the object 
of his insatiate ambition. It is said, that, for a whole hour, the 
exiled monarch gazed on Runjeet Singh, without speaking, who, 
still unmoved by this mute eloquence, insisted on his demand. 

The branches spread to a great extent, dropping their fibres 
here and there, which take root as soon as they reach the ground, 
and rapidly increase in size, till they rival the parent trunk, and 
cover a quantity of ground almost incredible. Reinwardt says, 
that he observed, on the island of Semao, in the Indian Archi¬ 
pelago, a large wood, whose trunks all proceeded from the stem 
of a single ficus, united with each other by their branches. 

The Bible Society may well be likened to this tree ! Let us 
see how its fibres took root in the Protestant countries of the 
world, during the first twenty-five years of its existence— in 
England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, half of Germany, three- 
fifths of Prussia, three-fifths of Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, 
Denmark, and Iceland, in the United States of America, in 
Canada, and also in the ^yest Indian Islands, subject to Dutch 
and Danish, Swedish and British sway. 


ENGLAND. 

During the first year of the Society, there were no Bibles 
issued—the printers being unable to complete their work. They 
did not then print by steam-presses. Stereotype plates were, at 
this time, made for the English Testament; and its circulation 
was effected, at first, very much by the agency of individuals^ 
and by Sunday-schools, as also by grants to the Naval and Milir 
tary Bible Society, f6r the benefit of soldiers and sailors. 

As its Reports became public, its sphere of usefulness in¬ 
creased. The production of the first supply of Welsh and Gaelic 
Scriptures, and their reception, have already been noticed. Some 



248 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Bibles and Testaments were also pro^dded at low prices for the 
inhabitants of the Isle of 'Man ; and two years after its forma¬ 
tion, {. e. in 1806, its first fibre took root, and the committee 
acknowledged a donation from an association of young men in 
London, formed for the purpose of contributing to its funds. In 
the same year a similar contribution was received from the town 
of Birmingham, where a Bible Association had been formed; 
and these voluntary associations, Mr. Owen says, contained the 
rudiments of Auxiliary Bible Societies. 

In the same year, and in 1807, further associations were 
established at Bath, Glasgow, and Greenock, which proposed to 
receive small monthly subscriptions; and thus, by collective 
additions, the Parent Society, in its third year, told of an in¬ 
crease of 300/. in its annual subscriptions, while more than 1000/. 
came in from Wales, and 4000/. from Scotland. During the 
same year, also, a lady added a bequest of 1000 guineas, side by 
side with which appears the contribution of 18/. from the children 
and teachers of the Ilolborn Sunday-school. It is a memorable 
fact, that Juvenile Bible Associations constituted the earliest 
auxiliaries or helps to the Parent Institution, and have continued 
to the present day to pour their small but unfailing rills into that 
mighty river by which all the nations are refreshed. 

But it was reserved for the town of Beading, in Berkshire, to 
give to Great Britain and the world the first example of a regular 
Auxiliary Bible Society. Dr. Valpy, well known to many 
by his “ Latin Grammar,’' was also an earnest and early friend 
of the Bible Society. He first preached in its behalf, and de¬ 
clared its object; and then, with other gentlemen, convened a 
meeting in the town-hall, under the sanction of the mayor, on 
the 28th of March, 1809, at which meeting it was determined to 
adopt, as far as possible, the rules and regulations of the Parent 
Society. 

Now this auxiliary had in view two principal objects—one to 
collect subscriptions (as the former associations had done) in aid 
of the general funds; and the other, with half the money it 
should collect, to purchase Bibles and Testaments from the 



THE AUXILIARY SYSTEM. 


249 


Parent Society, to be distributed in its own town and neigh¬ 
bourhood. After the example of the Parent Society, it appointed 
a clergyman, a dissenting minister, and a layman, for its secre¬ 
taries. 

The year ending in May, 1810, saw the establishment of ten 
societies like this in England, and three in Scotland. But the 
system was not yet perfect; they had not determined on the way 
to find out the want of the Bible among the poor of their own 
neighbourhoods; and ]\Jr. Bichard Phillips, who, in 1810, was 
elected a member of the Parent committee, was the first to point 
out the extent of usefulness to which this auxiliary system was 
capable of being applied. 

According to the plans which he proposed and published, and 
which were adopted by the society as their own, the respective 
auxiliary committees were recommended (for the Parent Institu¬ 
tion assumes no control over its dependent societies) to pursue the 
orderly and effective way of raising subscriptions, by dividing 
their town or neighbourhood into districts, and appointing two or 
more of their members as visitors in each, to make minute and 
personal inquiries among the habitations of the poor, and en¬ 
courage the sale of Bibles among them, at cost or reduced prices, 
in preference to absolute gift. 

The calls upon the richer part of the population were to be 
made in the same way, with a request for their support and appro¬ 
bation. A meeting of the committee was to be held every month, 
and a general and public meeting every year. 

To every auxiliary of this kind might be attached, if it em¬ 
braced a wide sphere of labour, twelve or more Bible Associations, 
to be carried on by the same rules and regulations. 

The Southwark Auxiliary Bible Society, established in 1812, 
afforded a fair example of the working of the system, which 
speedily extended itself over the kingdom of Great Britain. The 
members of the twelve associations connected with this auxiliary 
met monthly, each in their own committee, transacted their busi¬ 
ness, and passed over their collections to the auxiliary society, 
which again passed them to the Parent committee 



250 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


For two years and a half these twelve committees, all composed 
of gentlemen, were in full operation, and the results were very 
cheering. Many thousand Bibles and Testaments were distri¬ 
buted, and 4600?. was remitted to the auxiliary society. Still, 
various cases occurred in which subscriptions could only be suita¬ 
bly solicited from females, by members of their own sex, and the 
consequent formation of ladies’ associations, in Southwark, com¬ 
pleted the efficiency of that valuable auxiliary. 

Twelve committees of ladies then met, and conducted their own 
business, passing over the proceeds of their collections to the trea¬ 
surer of the gentlemen’s committee, and these again to the auxi¬ 
liary, which, thus receiving twenty-four constant tributary streams, 
not only distributed large numbers of Bibles and Testaments in 
its own neighbourhood, but added greatly to the funds of the 
Parent Society. 

In Great Britain there are now 445 of these auxiliaries, with 
2825 branches and associations; therefore if you have had patience 
to follow the business-detail of the last two or three pages, and if 
you have gained an idea of the system of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society, as carried out in one place, you have only to multi¬ 
ply this idea in your mind, and conceive of thousands of such as¬ 
sociations at work, every week and every month, in many parts 
of the world. 


The establishment of the ladies’ associations in Southwark, in 
1814, brings us to the beginning of those times of peace which 
have happily endured ever since in England. 

The machinery of the society was now perfect, and it has con- 
tinuea co act on the same principle and system ever since. 

Amid the calamities of an expensive war, its constitution had 
been thus far matured, and its treasury supplied. Among con¬ 
victs at Portsmouth, felons in Newgate, and to all jails, hospitals, 
workhouses, and hulks, its gifts had been abundant. 

Meanwhile, you would scarcely believe it, but this society had 
enemies,—men who, hardly knowing what they did, misunder- 




AN AMUSING FABLE. 


251 


stood and maligned it. Some earnest friends of the venerable 
and excellent Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which, 
as we have seen, had circulated and translated Bibles as far as its 
funds would allow, conceived that the Bible Society interfered 
with its province, and diminished its income. This society was 
supported, and still is, entirely by members of the Church of 
England. 

To this. Lord Teignmouth, an attached member of that church, 
and also the president of the committee in Earl-street, replied, 
that he was informed, and he believed most correctly, that the 
annual amount of subscriptions to the Society for Promoting 
Christian Knowledge had considerably increased since the esta¬ 
blishment of the Bible Society;’^ and the Bev. W. Dealtry, M.A., 
Pellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in the form of an amusing 
fable on the subject, strongly recommended a good understanding 
between the two societies. 

Once upon a time,^^ said he, “ in the midst of a parched and 
dreary land, there gushed from the top of a mountain a fine spring 
of water: the wilderness was converted into a garden, where it 
flowed, and verdure was the sure companion of its progress. 

After some time, a similar stream began to flow from the 
summit of a neighbouring hill. It became the parent of many 
branching rivulets, which cheered the face of nature on every 
side, and carried happiness and abundance into the remotest 
lands. 

^^The good old stream was a little touched with jealousy, and 
addressed its neighbour in the following terms: ^Do you not 
know that you are intruding into a country which I have pre¬ 
occupied, and that you and your rivulets interfere with, impede, 
and curtail the inestimable benefits of grass and green fields which 
I have so happily promoted V 

ai^hy,^ said the other, ^how can that be? Are not my 
streams as pure as your own, and does not the desert smile like¬ 
wise wherever I go ?^ 

^ Your streams do indeed profess to be pure, though I have 
something, if I choose, to say on that point; but I insist upon it, 



252 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


that I am the good old stream, and that you are an interloper: I 
should not err much if I called you a thief.’ 

^ A thief! Have I ever stolen any thing from you V 
^‘^Yes, you have: it can need no proof, that, if your mouth 
were closed, some of the water which now courses along your 
channels would, by filtration through the mountain, fall into 
mine.’ 

^It is certainly very possible that some fifteen or twenty drops 
might have reached you by this underground filtration; but see 
what a noble body of water I possess, and I employ the whole for 
the benefit of these parched and thirsty lands 1’ 

^ What business, I ask you, have you to flow at all ? I existed 
for ages before any one thought of you ) and I am by no means 
convinced, notwithstanding your imposing and devouring claims, 
that you confer any benefit whatever. Your very complexion is 
offensive; and, on the whole, you offer great possibilities of evil, 
and are a very shabby current; yet, little as I admire you, I 
would rather that you would become a feeder to me, than move 
in this unauthorized manner through the world alone.’ 

«My good friend, it is quite impossible : some of my rivulets 
might possibly be turned so as to fall into your channel, but there 
are copious branches, which, from the nature of the country, roll 
on in other directions, and cannot by any process be made to com¬ 
bine with yours; neither, as I believe, would you be willing to 
receive them; while, therefore, we carry cheerfulness and delight 
on every side, let us be content to pursue our own channels in 
quietness and peace.’ ” 

Lord Teignmouth’s assertion, that the first society was bene¬ 
fited by the second, was shown to be true, by another clergyman, 
the Rev. W. Ward, rector of May land, near Colchester. “I 
consider them,” said he, not as rivals, but the reverse. I con¬ 
sider the new as helpful to the old, and that both will promote a 
more general diffusion of Christian knowledge. The harvest is 
great, and the Lord of the harvest seems now to be raising up a 
great host of labourers to reap it. The light of the gospel, which 
at present shines but on a speck, as it were, of the globe, is to be 



COMPARATIVE ISSUES OP THE SCRIPTURES. 


253 


diffused over the face of the whole earth. Now, the funds drawn 
exclusively from the members of any one church, even from the 
Church of England itself, are not sufficient to this general diffu¬ 
sion of the gospel; but the unlimited resources of the Bible 
Society, the united contributions, legacies, and donations of all 
descriptions of Christians, can do wonders—can absolutely supply 
the place of miracles and the gift of tongues.^' 

^^The object,^^ continues this good man, “is so glorious, so 
grand, so sublime!—the scheme is so full of the love of God, the 
love of our country, and the love of our fellow-creatures,—that it 
should have our last prayers when we lie down at night, and our 
first when we awake in the morning.^^ 

Mr. Ward also showed, that, in 1803, the year before the Bible 
Society commenced, the subscriptions to the Christian Knowledge 
Society were 2119^., but that in 1809 they were 3413Z.—an in¬ 
crease of above one-third; while, as to the issues of Bibles and 
Testaments, the issues from the old society alone were, in 1803, 
17,779, but in 1809 they were 22,611; while the sum-total of 
the Bibles, Testaments, and Psalters, circulated by hoih societies 
in 1809 was 99,883;—more Bibles, Testaments, and Psalters, 
issued in 1809 than in 1800, eighty-six thousand! This proof 
was unanswerable. 

The triumphant defence which the Bible Society had obtained, 
from the exertion of these distinguished advocates, contributed 
not a little to elevate the spirits of those on whom the toil and 
responsibility of conducting its affairs devolved; and they turned 
with renewed zeal to the field of exertion which lay before them 
in their own country, and in the wide, wide world. 

There was still great need of exertion at home. In the county 
of Flint, in a circle of ten parishes, 1300 families were found 
without a Bible, and similar investigations all over the country 
showed similar results; nevertheless, in 1817, the committee 
stated, that, as the infancy of their society had given promise of 
a vigorous youth, so the growth of thirteen years had amply con¬ 
firmed it. They looked round on the pleasing fruits of Christian 

union, and attributed to Divine favour alone, successes astonish- 

22 



254 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


ing in their magnitude; for they found they had labourers for 
every soil,—coadjutors in every quarter of the globe. 

Such, indeed, was the interest which the British and Foreign 
Bible Society had excited, that the prayers of thousands attended 
its progress, and its extinction would have been felt as a calamity 
all over the world. The minute-books of the ladies’ committees, 
whose members find easy access to the cottages of the poor, and 
an earnest welcome from their inmates, tell many a touching tale. 
They prove that collectors of Bible Associations are almost in¬ 
variably greeted with joy, and that, punctual in their weekly 
visits, they are sure to find their humble subscribers ready with 
their money, and grateful for the trouble they take to call for 
subscriptions, and bring the Bible to their doors. 

Some say, ^^The Bibles delivered this month were thought 
most beautiful.” One woman exclaimed, “I am sure I should 
never have had my Bible in any other way; and if I had to come 
to you, instead of your coming to me, I much fear I should not 
have begun yet.” 

In another district, a poor woman, showing signs of indifference 
whether she possessed the Scriptures or not, was accosted by her 
son, a little boy, who said, Mother, if you do not subscribe for 
a Bible, I must.” He thus persuaded his mother to pay her first 
penny. 

A subscriber to the Beading Ladies’ Bible Association related 
the following incident to one of the collectors:— 

^‘A few weeks ago, a young man came to my shop, when the 
subject of the Bible Society was mentioned. On this his indigna¬ 
tion was immediately kindled, and he expressed the bitterest feel¬ 
ing against it. Bemonstrance with his passion would then have 
been useless: we were silent, and he left us. My little girl was 
then lying on her death-bed, and though young in years, was old 
in Christian experience. I mentioned the circumstance to her, 
and asked her what should be done. ^ Oh, father!’ she replied, 
^subscribe for a Bible for him’ This we did; and when I pre¬ 
sented it to the young man, I told him of the desire of the dying 
child. He received it with gratitude, took it home, read it, and 



THE WIDOW AND THE WOOL. 


255 


read it to his fellow-servants, who soon wished to possess it for 
themselves. He brought me six shillings for this purpose, and 
we received it with gladness, believing that it is the work of God, 
and that nothing shall impede its triumphant progress.’^ 

The mother of a large and helpless family regularly subscribed 
for a Bible, during four months. She was frequently asked 
whether, indeed, she could spare the weekly penny, and her 
reply was, ‘‘I never miss it; we were very poor indeed when I 
began to subscribe, but this book seems to have brought a bless¬ 
ing into the house; we were very lonely without it.’^ 

You may also like to hear the history of the old woman and 
the wool. A poor widow living on the side of the Black Moun¬ 
tains, in Caermarthenshire, attended a public meeting. She had 
only one shilling in her possession, part of which she intended to 
lay out to buy wool for making an apron, and the other part in 
candles, that she might see to spin it in the evenings, after ^nish- 
ing her day’s work with the farmers. Having heard the speakers 
describe the sad condition of the poor heathen without Bibles, she 
felt for them so much, that she determined to give sixpence out 
of her shilling to the collection, thinking that she would do with¬ 
out the apron for some time longer, and spin her wool by day¬ 
light, when the summer ‘ evenings came. As the speaker pro¬ 
ceeded, the old woman felt more and more, till at last she de¬ 
termined to give the shilling altogether; because,” she said, 
^‘1 can do better without an apron, than the heathen can without 
the word of God.” She cheerfully gave her shilling, went home, 
and slept comfortably that night. At daybreak the following 
morning, a neighbouring farmer called at her door, and said, 
Peggy, we have had a dreadful night; several of my sheep have 
been carried away by the flood. There are two lying quite dead 
in the hedge of your garden. You may take them if you like, 
and you will get some wool from them.” She thankfully ac¬ 
cepted the gift; and thus she had wool enough to make three or 
four aprons, and tallow to make candles to spin it. As no one knew 
what she had done the day before but herself and her God, she 
looked upon that occurrence as a very kind providence toward her. 



256 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


And now, here is another history, just as good, about the Bible- 
bees. 

In the year 1809, at the formation of a Bible Association at 
Barton in Lincolnshire, before Mr. and Mrs. W. went to the 
meeting, Mrs. W. said to Mr. W., ^^We must give a guinea to 
the Bible Society.’’ ^‘Nay,” said her husband, ^Hhat is too 
much; the rich do not give more than a guinea, and we are not 
rich; it will even look like ostentation in us to give so much.” 

Still,” said Mrs. W., ^^if you will not give it, I will.” ^^And 
where are you to get it?” said he. ‘‘I have it by me,” said she; 
^^do you not remember that you gave me a guinea, with which to 
buy a hive of bees; now, I will give that guinea to the Bible 
Society.” ^^Then,” said Mr. W., ^^you will go without your 
bees.” ^Mt is well,” said Mrs. W.; “for I love the Bible So¬ 
ciety better than I should love the bees.” So they went to the 
Bible-meeting, and the guinea was given. 

They had no sooner reached home, than the wife said to her 
husband, “ Oh ! see! A swarm of,bees has settled on our beech- 
tree : if no one claims them in four-and-twenty hours, the swarm 
will be mine.” No one did claim them, and they were hived. 
A day or two afterward, Mr. W. said to his wife, “It appears to 
me very remarkable that Providence should send to us, just now, 
that swarm of bees. Suppose we dedicate these bees to the Bible 
Society ?” To this Mrs. W. gladly gave her consent. The first 
year, the hive produced two swarms, and they gave two guineas 
to the Bible Society; the second year, the three hives produced 
ten swarms, and they gave ten guineas to the Bible Society. It 
was then proposed to them, that instead of giving a guinea for 
each swarm, they should keep a regular account of debtor and 
creditor, placing the expenses of hives, &c., on one side, and the 
produce of wax and honey on the other. In the third- year, hav¬ 
ing had some loss from two or three of the swarms dying in the 
winter, the honey and wax sold only for 71., which was given to 
the society. In the fourth year, the produce was 11/., which was 
also given to the society. 

In 1835, Mr. and Mrs. W. removed into Wiltshire, and the 



THE GUN AND THE BIBLE. 


257 


bees were then left under the care of other persons. The Rev. 
Mr. Methuen of Devizes mentioned that the society had received 
ten guineas from the Bible-bees, both in 1836 and 1837. 

In the Monthly Extracts is recorded a mournful incident oc¬ 
curring in a district in Cornwall, where there was not a Bible 
Association. A young man, engaged in the mines, had become 
the subject of serious impressions, and wished to possess a Bible 
of his own. He had fixed his choice on the quarto edition, at 
22s., which he found he could have from Truro, and had laid by 
16s., when, in an evil hour, he fell into bad company, and was 
tempted to buy a gun with his savings for the Bible. His parents 
remonstrated, but in vain. -The first day he went out with it, his 
worthless gun exploded, the stock was shivered, and a part of it 
penetrated the forehead of the unhappy lad, who in an instant fell 
a lifeless corpse. Ah ! had there been a faithful collector calling 
at his door, she would have received his 6c?. or Is. as he put it by 
from his earnings, and the Bible—the blessed Bible—might have 
been furnished instead of the awful instrument of death! 

It would be easy to multiply incidents: the difficulty lies only 
in selecting them. Every one, who has ever been a steady and 
patient collector of weekly pence from the poorer classes, whether 
to supply them with Bibles for themselves, or to afford them an 
opportunity of casting their mite, precious as the poor widow’s, 
into the treasury of Grod, will be able to add to such records from 
his own practical knowledge. 

Whatever be the cause to which we contribute labour, and for 
whose sake we exercise self-denial, we acquire a deep interest in 
it: but this is especially true of the Bible Society, from the vast 
importance and singleness of its object, and its ever-extending 
influence. 


When Mr. Dudley, who had been one of the most indefatigable 
agents in planting and regulating these tributary committees, 
looked round him in the year 1821, he spoke of 1000 Bible As¬ 
sociations organized in the United Kingdom, of 600 similar insti- 

22 » 




258 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


tutions in other quarters of the globe, of 900,000^. expended in 
this noble effort to circulate the word of God, and of the transla¬ 
tion, printing, and distribution of the whole, or portions of that 
word, into eighty languages and dialects, in which it had never 
before been printed; and he also announced the fact, that, in 
the seventeen years since its formation, it had just doubled the 
supply of the Scriptures which it found in existence at the period 
of its birth. 

In the year 1824, the committee thus addressed their sub¬ 
scribers : 

The true state of the world has been brought more fully to 
light than before. A view has been obtained, that, however great 
and however commendable your past labours may have been, re¬ 
duces them to a cipher, and makes them still appear but as the 
sowing of the grain of mustard-seed,—a view that might appal 
the stoutest heart, were it not written, ^ I am with you; fear not,^ 
and, ^ Is any thing too hard for the Lord He who has shown 
you such great things will show you yet greater: your success 
must only incite you to more earnest, more zealous, more cheerful 
exertion than ever.’^ 

On the 3d of August, 1827, a branch association was established 
at Jarrow colliery. Sixty families were found destitute of the 
Scriptures. This place is rendered sacred as having been the 
residence of the Venerable Bede, the first translator even of parts 
of the Bible for the Anglo-Saxons, and the mind is led with de¬ 
vout gratitude to contrast the facilities now enjoyed for multiply¬ 
ing and distributing the sacred volume in that locality, with the 
barbarism and ignorance which at a former period impeded the 
progress of Divine truth. 

In the twenty-fourth Report, fifty new societies were said to 
have been added to those already existing; yet, notwithstanding 
the vast number of copies diffused through the nation, the demand 
was not nearly satisfied,—a fact which proved that there had been 
a great destitution of the Scriptures in the community, and that 
a desire to possess the Holy Book had been created and extended 
to a wonderful degree. 



DEATH OF REV. JOHN OWEN. 


259 


There is something at once grand and inspiring in the thought, 
that the written voice of God, the best book in the world, has 
acquired, in mere number of copies, an immense superiority over 
every other book in the world, placing itself by all the good books 
to improve their usefulness, and by all the bad ones to baffle their 
malignity; and this in contrast to the times when millions of each 
successive generation passed through life, and out of it, without 
any dissatisfaction that they had never read, or that they had 
never been able to read, one chapter or verse of the Bible.^' 

At the close of the year 1822, the society had to mourn the 
loss of its clerical secretary, the Rev. John Owen, by the un¬ 
sparing hand of death. He had for some time been declining in 

strength,—the combined 
result of excitement, fa¬ 
tigue, and anxiety. No 
frame could have with¬ 
stood the exhausting and 
destructive efforts of la¬ 
bours so varied, so ex¬ 
tensive, and so incessant, 
as those in which he had 
been eighteen years en¬ 
gaged. A brief amend¬ 
ment gave hope to his 
friends and admirers of a 
perfect recovery; but the 
vital energy seemed spent 
in the meridian of his 
course, and the lamp of life only flickered for a while to dwindle 
and disappear. Those are the things” said he to his attached 
co-secretary, Mr. Hughes, who was then laying hold of his dry, 
cold hand, and comforting him with the passage, ^^Thou shalt 
guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory,^' 

“ Those are the things - ” said he, when death prevented 

him from finishing the sentence. 

He had done the work of a long life in those few years. It is 







260 


TIIE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


strange that no biographer has yet been found to tell its tale; for 
he seems to have been universally beloved and deeply regretted 
by all who knew him. He had been given of God to the society 
on the very day of its formation, and had guided it with wisdom 
and unwearied energy during its early and critical years, and he 
left it towering in its strength,—the noblest moral pyramid that 
the nations of earth ever combined to build. 

If, when there was no written word of God to be circulated on 
the earth, on the tower of Babel was inscribed Coi^fusiony there 
is now graven Union on the vast pile of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society; and the noblest names of earth would be ho¬ 
noured, could they claim to be written on the stones that compose 
it. Those of Owen, Hughes, and Steiukopff are deeply traced 
upon its base; and our young friends may remember, that there 
is room yet for many a name more, of those who shall become its 
devoted and faithful servants, seeking not honour from men, but 
only the praise of Him who seeth in secret. This pyramid is still 
building. It shall never be finished tilt the day when the 
knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover 
the sea.^^ 

IRELAND. 

The committee early turned their thoughts to the Roman 
Catholics of Ireland, among whom there was said to be a Bible 
to about every 500 families. Their informant then stated, that 
to print an Irish Bible, at that time, would be of but little use, 
for the people, if they read at all, read English. The society 
transmitted to a clergyman in Ireland 1000 copies of the Pro¬ 
testant New Testament, and found that they might be circulated 
among the Roman Catholics of Ireland with little difficulty. 
One thousand copies of a smaller Testament were also granted to 
schools in Ireland, which were numerously attended by Roman 
Catholic children. 

In 1813, most zealous and successful exertions seem to have 
been made in Ireland, for^ the circulation of the Scriptures. The 
number of Bible Societies, in connection with the Hibernian So- 



SIX months' service for a testament. 


261 


ciety, rose from eight to thirty-five, and the number of Bibles 
and Testaments issued was 40,000. What had been the previous 
need of the Scriptures, may be gathered from the following 
anecdote :— 

A young man, bred a Catholic, having learned to read, and 
a New Testament happening to lie neglected in his master’s 
house, it became the constant companion of his leisure hours. 
His apprenticeship to his master, a linen-weaver, being finished, 
he begged the New Testament as a reward for his faithful ser¬ 
vices. The master refused to give it to him, unless he served 
six months longer. The young man, thinking that a New Tes¬ 
tament might be obtained on easier terms at Castlebar, declined 
this, and made diligent inquiry at all the shops to find one. 
Alas ! not a Testament was for sale at that time in the principal 
town of a populous county in Ireland ! He could not live without 
it; it was never absent from his thoughts; he dreamed of no¬ 
thing else; and, finding no rest, he returned to his master, and 
agreed to serve him for the Testament six months more.” A 
gentleman of respectability in Ireland vouched for this as a fact, 
in a letter dated 24th December, 1811. He adds that ^‘the 
young man became, and continues, a steadfast and exemplary 
Protestant.” 

In 1812, the Bible Society sent 1525 Bibles and Testaments 
to Londonderry, to be sold at half their cost. A correspondent 
says : The times are trying to the poor; yet many who come 

to Derry market, to buy food for their children, came to my 
house, and said in my hearing, ^ We will buy a little less meal, 
and take home the word of God with us, as we may never get 
Testaments for 7d. each again.’ Several of the common beggars 
bought Testaments with the halfpence they begged in the streets. 
About 200 of these books have been sold to Homan Catholics. 
Do not leave me to the chiding of the people, without a fresh 
supply : 1525 more will not last me a month. Oh ! may God 
bless his word everywhere, and abundantly reward the work of 
faith and labour of love of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society!” 



262 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


In 1815, it was stated tliat the Irish had manifested an in¬ 
creased anxiety to read the Scriptures in their native tongue; 
and the committee determined to print an edition of the whole 
Bible in the Irish language. 

In 1821, it was said, Seven counties in Ireland yet remain 
strangers to the beneficent labours of the Bible Society, and eight 
more are but partially supplied; so that in the greater proportion 
of fifteen counties, the influence of the society is not yet expe¬ 
rienced. Still much was doing in Ireland.’^ The ladies of 

Dublin,’^ say the Parent committee, were the first agents in 
this kingdom, who, nobly casting away all apprehension, and 
committing themselves to the protection of Almighty God, made 
the experiment of female influence in disseminating the word of 
God among the poor; and,^’ it is added, in their very great 
success they have already enjoyed more than a compensation for 
all their sacrifices, and their example has not been lost to the 
country.^^ 

In the Beports of the Hibernian Bible Society for 1827, it was 
said, We are now given to see, as it were, the fruits of the 
labour bestowed for many years pa^t upon this country. May 
God grant that it may prove to be the first-fruits of an abundant 
harvest! The circulation of Bibles here, this year, is 40,000 
copies.This Keport also mentions, that, on occasion of some 
recent discussions on religious subjects, which took place in Ire¬ 
land, scholars were in the habit of borrowing, night after night, 
every Bible in their schools, in order that their parents and 
friends might compare one passage of Scripture with another;— 
such Bibles being invariably returned on the following morning. 



CHAPTEE ly. 


The Bible Society in Holland—Prayer for Bible Societies—Germany—Its Re¬ 
ligious State previous to the Existence of the Bible Society—Dr. Schwabe’s 
Tour—Mr. Owen’s Letters—Prussia—Royal Patronage—Switzerland—An- 
tistes Hess—Dr. Steinkopff’s Report—Lausanne Bible Society—Sweden— 
Norway—Iceland—Mr. Henderson’s Letters—Denmark—The United States 
of America. 


HOLLAND. 

We have now to pass on to the continent, and there observe 
what had been the labours of Mr. Owen and those of his coadju¬ 
tors among the nations of Europe, and their correspondence with 
the world in general, during the first five-and-twenty years of the 
existence of the Bible Society, taking first, as we have proposed, 
the Protestant countries. 

The Parent committee in their tenth Eeport announced that 
a Bible Society had been formed at Amsterdam, for the purpose 
of supplying the Holy Scriptures, in English, to the British 
churches in Holland, and of promoting the establishment of a 
Dutch Bible Society, which might furnish the Scriptures to the 
poor of the Netherlands in their own language, and circulate the 
same to all nations. The Prince of Orange became the patron 
of the English Bible Society in Holland, and its directors con¬ 
sisted of Englishmen and Dutchmen of the first respectability. 
The British and Foreign Bible Society offered to this newly- 
formed society a grant of 500 Bibles and 1000 Testaments, and 
promised the sum of 500?., as a donation, on the establishment 
of a National Bible Society. When the committee’s correspond¬ 
ent mentioned this liberal offer, in the presence of three of the 
wealthiest citizens of Amsterdam, one of them shed tears, another 
seemed overcome with astonishment, and the third exclaimed. 
The English are a pattern to all nations !” 


263 


264 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Kotterdam, the Hague, and other cities of the United Nether¬ 
lands, soon afterward became the seats of zealous auxiliaries. 
Thirty-two Bible Associations were formed in the city of Amster¬ 
dam and its suburbs. 

The Bible Society had issued an edition of 5000 copies of the 
Dutch New Testament in 1809, chiefly for the use of prisoners 
of war in England. Considerable numbers of the copies were 
afterward forwarded to the Cape of Good Hope, and were most 
thankfully received; for it was ascertained that not a single 
Dutch Bible could be obtained for money throughout that ex¬ 
tensive colony. On receipt of this intelligence, the society 
immediately commenced a large edition of the entire Dutch 
Bible. 

In 1819, in the town of Hoorn, in Holland, scarcely a single 
servant could be found without the Scriptures: 350 Bibles had 
been placed in the workhouse; and the large halls of that insti¬ 
tution, form'erly filled with disgraceful mobs, now resounded with 
hymns of praise. 

The society at Rotterdam had upward of 1000 members. 
Sunday-schools promoted Scripture-reading, and a Bible was 
reckoned the highest reward for diligent scholars. Schoolmasters 
in Zigp were ordered not to let a day pass without reading a 
chapter to the children, ^^for the Bible places every one in the 
sphere where he ought to he: it is in itself the best rule, the most 
faithful counsellor, and the safest refuge.'^ 

In the Netherlands, in 1820, a certain day in October was 
appointed, throughout the whole kingdom, to offer up, at six 
o’clock in the evening, prayers and supplications to God for the 
success of the circulation of the Bible. 

In 1821, the Dutch Society furnished with the Scriptures all 
the sufferers by a dreadful inundation that occurred in the coun¬ 
try; and a very active Marine Bible Society was formed for the 
benefit of persons engaged in the shipping. They also undertook 
version of the New Testament for Java, and a Malay version 
for Amboyna, in both of which the society afforded them aid. 

Let us therefore,” say they, continue to communicate the 



RELIGIOUS STATE OF GERMANY. 


265 


Bible to all classes of people, without exception. The heavenly 
comfort it contains will not be felt and valued more in palaces 
than under the thatched roofs of cottages. The Bible is indeed 
a Divine legacy to the whole human race.’^ 1822.) 

GERMANY. 

During the war, correspondence was opened in different parts 
of Germany, to ascertain the want of the Holy Scriptures, particu¬ 
larly among Protestants; and through the untiring labours of the 
Foreign secretary. Dr. Steinkopff, the society commenced its 
operations in various quarters. The numerous calls from the 
poor for the Scriptures were met by grants of money and Bibles 
from England, to the amount of 2712?. New editions of the 
German Bible were likewise undertaken at Basle and Berlin. 

The religious state of Germany, when the society’s agent first 
entered it, was that of almost universal apostasy from the saving 
doctrines of the gospel of Christ, eveh in the Protestant German 
churches. Bationalism had taken the place of Divine revela¬ 
tion. Her professors of theology and her doctors of divinity 
were, alas! the propagators of that infidelity which, for three 
generations, had filled her pulpits and her schools with error: 
they had poisoned the literature of the nation at its source, and 
altered the very hymns and catechisms of the reformers. 

Then it was that the agents o^ the Bible Society began to 
spread the word of God, without note or comment, as the most 
powerful of all means for stemming this tide of neology. The 
remnant of pious Christians, who had not bowed the knee before 
the Baal of the times, gladly welcomed them, and willingly joined 
in the work; but the indifference prevailing among all classes on 
the subject of religion was a great obstacle to the spread of the 
Scriptures; the churches were nearly empty in all parts of the 
country; and it was no easy matter to persuade the people to 
purchase and read even the Bible 1 

Bible Societies in Germany being established from this time, 
we hear of more frequent inquiry among the poor, for the Ger- 

23 



266 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


man Scriptures, than had hitherto been known to exist. Mean¬ 
while, the various German committees were assisted with fre¬ 
quent grants of money, and the poor exiles from Hamburg, and 
the sufferers by war, in different parts of the country, were sup¬ 
plied with copies of the Scriptures, which were most thankfully 
received. 

The Eev. Hr. Schwabe, who made a tour of inquiry for the 
society, on the continent, often along the track of country through 
which the retreating and pursuing armies had passed, describes 
the ruined villages, the lost Bibles, the scattered schools, the 
churches even left without the Scriptures necessary to the per¬ 
formance of Divine worship. He established a Bible Society at 
Erfurt, his native town, and the locality of Luther’s monastery, 
once well supplied with Bibles, but where the destitution was 
then great. Among the mines of Salfeld, children came to bring 
him, with tears of joy, the whole little treasure they had gained 
by picking ore, in exchange for a Bible. 

Among the silver-mines at Freyberg, among the orphan chil¬ 
dren at Dresden, and in many other towns and villages, this 
agent dispensed the bounty of the society. A great part of the 
ground over which he passed had not before been visited by any 
Bible agent; and through evidences like these of the sympathy 
of Great Britain with this suffering country, Germany learned to 
view her with no less admiration when holding out the palm and 
the olive-branch, than when girt with the sword of war, and 
striking terror into the hearts of her enemies. 

Attached to the fifteenth Report of the Bible Society, are a 
series of letters received from the Bev. John Owen, while on a 
tour on the continent, which was undertaken partly with a view 
of restoring his failing health. During his journey, he greatly 
aided the interests of the society, to which, ‘Giving and dying, 
he was unalterably devoted.” He travelled in the times when it 
took two days and a half to get from Calais to Paris, where he 
visited Professor Kieffer, in his study,—finding him engaged in 
the revision of the Turkish New Testament, collating it with 
Greek, English, German, French, Tartar, Arabic, and Persian 



THE PRUSSIAN BIBLE SOCIETY. 


267 


Mr. Owen also paid a visit to one ^^who laid hold/^ as he says, 
^^on his warmest affections,''—to Pastor Oberlin, and his Ban de 
la Roche. Two of his letters are dated from Basle in Switzer¬ 
land, which he calls ^Hhe favoured asylum of sound learning, 
evangelical piety, and Christian friendship." He offered to their 
Bible Society a contribution from London of 500Z., to assist them 
in printing the quarto German Bible, and presided at a meeting, 
at which were present the great and good men of the city, with 
Dr. Pinkerton and the Rev. Mr. Blumhardt, who gave an account 
of their tours in Germany and Holland. 

The German Bible Societies continually increased in number, 
and were favoured with much royal patronage; yet still the 
supply of the Scriptures was not equal to the demand, in many 
parts of impoverished Germany. The president of the Giessen 
Society laments that, in ten villages, an entire copy of the Bible 
is rarely to be seen. The gratitude evinced for the gift of the 
Scriptures is seldom shown more earnestly than it was by a poor 
German workman, who had been presented at the anniversary of 
the Neuweid Society with a Bible, and brought fifteen silver 
groschen to the clergyman whose ministry he attended, saying it 
was his ^Gittle all," but that he felt bound to offer it to the Bible 
Society, in gratitude for that excellent Book which he had re¬ 
ceived from it the year before. 

PRUSSIA. 

The Prussian Bible Society was established in August, 1814. 

The first clergyman in the city, Probst Han stein, rose with a 
Bible in his right hand, and represented with striking eloquence 
the floods of infidelity and wickedness, the ravages of war, and 
the general misery under which the Prussians had suffered for so 
many years, and pointed out, as the source of all those sins and 
sorrows, the disrespect and contempt which had been poured upon 
that best of all books—the Bible." 

This account is contained in a letter from the Rev. Dr. Pinker¬ 
ton, who, with Messrs. Paterson and Henderson, had been intro- 



268 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


duced to the Bible Society, in the year 1812, and had proved its 
invaluable foreign agents. All three were natives of Scotland. 

The introduction of the Scriptures into the schools of Prussia 
was effected by a decree promulgated by Frederick William III., 
the first German sovereign who became the patron of Bible So¬ 
cieties. 

In 1817, the Prussian Bible Society continued diligently and 
successfully to pursue its course. Twenty auxiliaries were added 
to it before the expiration of its second year, and one of these had 
seven branches! 

The British and Foreign Bible Society offered to its members 
a grant of 500?. They were engaged in printing the German 
Bible, Luther’s version, and also an edition of the Scriptures in 
the dialect of the Wends in Lusatia, which the Prussian secre¬ 
tary said was ‘^one of the most useful works ever undertaken.” 
Though the higher classes in the country speak German, the 
lower speak Wendish. They are a people who have a particular 
objection to the Bible without the Apocrypha, and are remarkable 
for their indifference to the New Testament, when printed alone. 

The London committee observed, with admiration and gratitude, 
the steady march by which the Prussian Society advanced toward 
the attainment of its object. For much of its success it was in¬ 
debted, under the blessing of God, to the warm and decided en¬ 
couragement which it received from his Prussian majesty and 
several branches,of the royal family, besides the personal co-opera¬ 
tion of ministers of state, dignified clergy, and numerous persons 
of property and infiuence. 

The Bible Society has never especially courted royal patronage; 
it can do without it: but when we consider its object—the circu¬ 
lation of the word of Him ‘‘by whom kings reign, and princes 
decree justice,”—it is meet that crowned heads should cast into 
its treasury, and that it should comprise, within its vast con¬ 
stituency, alike the hearts of kings and of peasants. 

In 1821, Dr. Steinkopff, in a tour, attended the anniversary of 
the Prussian Bible Society, which had then translated the Bible 
into five languages. The number of auxiliaries was thirty-eight, 



SWISS SOCIETIES. 


269 


and it had distributed 50,000 Bibles and 38,000 Testaments 
His majesty the King of Prussia bad declared to the Bishop of 
Potsdam, that be rejoiced to support Bible Societies in bis do¬ 
minions, because be considered them one of the most peaceful and 
efficacious means of cherishing a spirit of order and piety among 
bis people. 


SWITZERLAND. 

From a very early period, the objects of the Bible Society bad 
met with a warm sympathy in Switzerland : kindred institutions 
rapidly sprang up in all its principal cantons and cities, and the 
Scriptures were making silent but effectual progress, even amid 
the confusion and disasters occasioned by a desolating war. The 
Zurich and the St. Gall Bible Societies were diligent and liberal 
in their distributions. 

The Bev. Antistes Hess, senior of the Zurich clergy, wrote, in 
1815, a letter to Lord Teignmouth, in which, after alluding to 
the work of the Bible Society, ^^as promoting the increase of the 
invisible Church of Christ, which is limited by no boundaries of 
countries, or national dissimilitudes, or peculiarity of form and 
ritual,’^ he says, Permit an old man to speak also a little of 
himself. I have, from my very youth up, had a great desire to 
visit two countries, in preference to all others, viz. Palestine and 
Britain;—Palestine, on account of its having been the scene of 
the miracles of our Lord; and Britain, on account of its inhabit¬ 
ants, who have rendered themselves so illustrious in the cause of 
the Bible: yet I have not been permitted to see either. In some 
measure, however, I have obtained my desire, partly by corre¬ 
spondence, but particularly, as regards England, by reading the 
most interesting works written by your countrymen, and of which 
I have a select library.^^ 

A correspondent of the Bible Society, at Lausanne, says : The 
plan of the British and Foreign Bible Society was first imperfectly 
developed to me, at an annual meeting of the clergy of Geneva; 
and being strnck with its high importance and noble aims, I was 



270 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


anxious tliat my country also should participate in its benefits. 
An English lady, who was well acquainted with its plan, pro¬ 
gress, and principles, soon afterward presented me with ten of its 
Annual Reports, and, with an English guinea, laid the founda¬ 
tion-stone of our society. We have now distributed 227 Bibles 
and 271 Testaments. A minister of one of our villages thus 
writes: ‘We do indeed require a Bible Society in the canton de 
Vaud. Since that excellent law has fallen into disuse, which 
compelled every couple to produce their Bible at the altar, many 
families are without it in the villages of the Jura, where they no 
longer read the Scriptures even on the Lord’s-day, or during the 
violent storms, as was once the custom. In many ancient families 
they used to sanctify the hour of dinner, on the Sabbath, by read¬ 
ing the word of God : this was done by the youngest member of 
the family, who always dined first. This habit has been neglected 
really for want of books.^ 

Another correspondent thus writes: “I was singularly struck 
with your idea of introducing young children to assist in founding 
the Bible Society. It is for two young orphans that I desire this 
favour,—Jeanne Isaline Zink, and Jean Louis Zink. On offering 
each the moderate sum of 2s. 6c?., may they be admitted into 
your honourable society ?—and I will take care to instil into their 
minds, that, having been received in the years of weakness and 
infancy, they are bound to devote to its service those of maturity 
and strength.^' 

The Report of the Lausanne Bible Society, in 1824, states, 
that it was one of the chief designs of the original founder, that, 
in a canton containing a. population of 160,000 inhabitants, not a 
single family should be unprovided with the Sacred Scriptures; 
but though, since 1815, upward of 6000 Bibles and far more New 
Testaments have been circulated, the design is still far from being 
accomplished. 


SWEDEN. 

Mr. Paterson found in Sweden, a destitution of the Scriptures 
truly mournful. In 1812, it was calculated there might possibly 



THE SWEDISH BIBLE SOCIETY. 


271 


"be a copy of the Scriptures among every eighty-one persons. The 
Swedish Bible Society was then formed, and was assisted, like the 
others, by the British and Foreign Bible Society. This produced 
such gratitude in the breasts of the people, that when, in the 
above year, Sweden had been forced to make peace with France, 
and to declare war against England, and the usual war-prayer was 
read in all their churches, the people inquired who were their 
enemies; and being informed that the English were intended, 
^^No ! no V’ exclaimed they; ‘Uhe English are not our enemies ! 
They are our best friends; they sent us corn to sow our land 
when we had consumed all our reserve; they sent us medicine 
and blankets for our sick and wounded; and now, more than all, 
they have sent us the Bible They said they could not use 
that war-prayer, and it was discontinued accordingly. 

At the commencement of the present century, the religious con¬ 
dition of Sweden, as well as of other countries, had been at a low 
ebb, owing to the system of philosophy prevalent at the time. The 
reading of the Sacred Scriptures was generally neglected, for the 
few who possessed the treasure held it in contempt, and it was 
comparatively scarce among the mass of the people. It was an 
expensive book, and few could afford to buy it; added to which, 
the teachers of religion declared that the common people had no 
need of it, and that it would do them more harm than good. 

Mr. Paterson met with many difficulties, but he succeeded so far 
as to form an Evangelical Society, whose immediate object it was 
to publish religious tracts. The Swedish Bible Society was esta¬ 
blished in the year 1814, and the number of Bibles it issued soon 
proved that the gloomy forebodings expressed with regard to the 
circulation of the Bible, unaccompanied with apocryphal books, 
were without foundation. 

In 1818, the committee of the Swedish Bible Society say: 
name which we have all learned to reverence, is that of the Bri¬ 
tish and Foreign Bible Societi /,—the Parent Society of every Bible 
Institution throughout the world. We have this year received 
from them 300?. and powerful aid in support of our auxiliary so¬ 
cieties. We have, therefore, been enabled this year to publish 



272 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


13,000 Bibles and 5000 Testaments, making 160,000 Bibles and 
Testaments, since the commencement of the society.” 

In 1824, there is an account of Bibles distributed greater 
than in any preceding year. The Hemosand Ladies’ Bible So¬ 
ciety, the first of the kind instituted in Sweden, continued its 
progress with uninterrupted success. 

The president of the Stockholm Society, Count Rosenblad, 
spoke much to Dr. Pinkerton of the pleasing effect that had 
already resulted from the labours of the Swedish Bible Society, 
and the great change that had taken place in many minds in 
favour of the sacred writings and of Christianity,—the voice of 
infidelity being less frequently heard both in public and in private 
circles.” He adds: I conceive the present to be a serious 
crisis, which will perhaps determine, for centuries, the moral 
state of mankind. God is abundantly sowing the good seed, 
but the enemy is no less active in sowing tares. Had not Bible 
Societies been established, through the merciful providence of 
God, to counteract the evils of ignorance and infidelity, to 
what a state of degradation must the world have sunk at this 
moment!” 

NORWAY. 

A grant of the Holy Scriptures was made to the poor of Nor¬ 
way, by the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1812; but 
the example set in Sweden soon extended itself to the sister 
kingdom of Norway, under the liberal patronage of the crown- 
prince, from whom it received a munificent donation. The 
foundation of the Norwegian Bible Society was laid in 1816. 
Support was speedily and regularly furnished by the committee 
in London, up to the year 1828, when, in consequence of the 
decision of the British and Foreign Bible Society not to assist 
in the circulation of the Apocrypha, the Norwegian Society com¬ 
menced an independent agency of its own. Previously to this, 
however, large numbers of copies of the Scriptures had been 
circulated, and measures adopted for the translation of the New 
Testament into the Norwegian-Lapponese dialect. 



EDUCATION IN ICELAND. 


273 


ICELAND. 

But we must now turn to this large and interesting island 
of the North Atlantic Ocean, crossed by its ridges of rugged 
mountains, with its population scattered on the banks of the 
fiords or inlets of the sea, which run up toward the glaciers 
of the interior. Iceland contains an area of 30,000 square 
miles. It is divided into 305 parishes, and its centre is a 
dreary desert, through which one may travel far, without meet¬ 
ing any trace of human existence. You have heard, perhaps, 
of its magnificent glaciers, its boiling springs, its burning moun¬ 
tain, and its forests of a former age. The Icelanders are the 
genuine descendants of the old Norsemen, and their language 
is still pure as they imported it from Norway, in the ninth 
century. 

About the year 1057, Isleif, the bishop of Skalholt, intro¬ 
duced among them the art of writing, at the same time with 
the Latin language. The feats of their ancestors were recorded 
in songs, like those of the Druids; their historical compositions 
were called sagas,’' and literature was cultivated as soon as 
they acquired the art of writing. The corrupted Christianity 
of the times was established in Iceland, in A. d. 1000. In 
1529, the art of printing was introduced, and, in 1550, the 
Lutheran Keformation reached these frozen shores, which led to 
the overthrow of the convents, and the loss of many valuable 
national manuscripts. 

Elementary education, with a certain degree of superior in¬ 
formation, is very generally spread among the Icelanders. Chil¬ 
dren are educated by their parents, with the assistance of the 
parish clergyman; and, owing to their unchanged language, the 
humblest peasant can read and understand the most ancient 
written documents on the island. In the “Young Edda,” a 
composition of the eleventh century, it is said of the Anglo- 
Saxons and the Icelanders, “ Wer erum ehinar, tungu” “We 
are of one tongue.” 

Oddur, the son of a bishop of Holum, in Iceland, was edu- 



274 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


cated in Norway, and shared in the sensation which the doc¬ 
trines of the Reformation produced through the north of Europe. 

We are told that for three nights, on his knees, he besought 
the Father of lights” to open the eyes of his understanding, 
and show him whether the principles of Rome, or of Luther^ 
were from heaven; and afterward repairing to Germany, h( 
attended the lectures of Luther and Melancthon. On his return 
to Iceland, he entered upon a translation of the Scriptures; 
and, to avoid persecution, he commenced his important labours 
in a small cell in a cow-house. He completed a version of 
the New Testament, in 1539; but finding it impossible, from 
the force of public opinion, to print it in Iceland, he sailed 
for Denmark, and published it under the patronage of King 
Christian III. He also translated and printed the 53d chapter 
of Isaiah. The entire Bible was not printed in Iceland till 
1584, and Oddur’s translation of the New Testament was adopt¬ 
ed in this version. 

This edition consisted of 1000 copies, and has been called a 
faithful mirror of Luther’s German version.” Five editions of 
the Icelandic Bible were published after this, some of them of 2000 
copies each, and the latest in the year 1750. Still, in the year 
1806, the following is the report of the scarcity of the Scriptures:— 

At this period, the Rev. E. Henderson and the Rev. J. Pater¬ 
son, who had devoted themselves to the mission-field of India, 
visited Copenhagen, with a view to obtain a passage to Tranque- 
bar. Disappointed in doing this, their attention, during their 
stay in Denmark, was directed to Iceland, whose population, con¬ 
sisting of 46,000 persons able to read, almost without exception, 
had, however, among them but forty or fifty Bibles,—for the only 
printing-press in the island was out of repair; and yet no people 
in the world were more fond of rOading. As they could not, 
however, print books, they recurred to the older fashion of tran¬ 
scribing them, and the Scriptures were no longer to be obtained 
for money. These affecting particulars touched the hearts of those 
excellent men with compassion for the people of this island, and 
they made an earnest appeal on their behalf to their friends in 



WANT OF THE BIBLE IN ICELAND. 


275 


Scotland, who conveyed the intelligence to the committee of the 
Bible Society, in London. Lord Teignmouth, the president, then 
wrote a letter to the Bishop of Iceland, to the following effect. 

After informing him that the society had then been estab¬ 
lished only two years, but that it had been the'means already of 
circulating the Holy Scriptures to a great extent upon the conti¬ 
nent, he says that it would have felt much gratification imme¬ 
diately to be able to supply the wants of Iceland; but Icelandic 
Bibles can neither be printed nor procured in England. We there¬ 
fore adopt the only means in our power, and offer to contribute one- 
half of the expense of printing an edition of 5000 copies of 
the New Testament, and we shall have great pleasure in learning 
that the offer is accepted by the bishop and clergy of Iceland.’^ 

To this letter came an earnest and thankful response, stating, 
that the grant was truly welcome, that the best farmers in the 
parish had warmly contended which of them should have the 
loan of the one Bible, which was sent to their parish, for them¬ 
selves and their children. 

These Testaments were then printed at Fuhnen, in Denmark, 
and 1500 despatched to different parts of Iceland, in the spring 
of 1807. The war between England and Denmark prevented 
the transmission of the remaining copies, and it was thought 
that they would have been destroyed in the bombardment of 
Copenhagen, yet they were preserved when almost everything 
around them was laid in ashes. Two bombs entered the ware¬ 
house where they were lying, and it was nearly burnt to the 
ground,—that part only having escaped the flames in which 
these Scriptures were deposited V’ 

In the year 1815, another edition of 5000 entire Bibles and 
5000 extra Testaments left the press, for Iceland, under the Bev. 
E. Henderson’s superintendence, who then followed to witness 
their distribution. He writes, on his voyage thither, with a heart 
filled with joy, Our vessel is freighted with corn for the needy 
inhabitants of Iceland, and also with the bread of life,—the 
glorious gospel of the blessed God.” His reception was most 
gratifying to himself, and to the society which he represented 



276 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Mr. Henderson spent nearly two months in perilous journeys 
into the interior. Wherever he went, he was welcomed with 
enthusiasm, and scarcely left a place without being followed by 
the benedictions of the inhabitants. The ardour of the people 
to obtain a copy of the Holy Scriptures was excessive;—they 
really ‘‘ hungered and thirsted’’ after the word of Grod. Mr. H. 
says: From all that I have been able to learn, there are more 

marks of religious disposition directed toward the proper Object 
of worship among the Icelanders, taking them as a body, than 
among any other people in Europe.” In the appendix to the 
eleventh Ileport are contained Mr. Henderson’s most interesting 
letters, while on this journey. He left a copy of the Bible here 
and there, as he went along, and announced the coming large 
supply. The Bibles were to be sold at the reduced price, viz. 
4s., and the Testaments at Is. Zd. At this time there was only 
a post to Iceland twice a year, but for the Bibles there was to be 
a post on purpose. At the house of the Bean of Iceland, he saw 
a Bible of the former days: it was a folio edition, nearly devoured 
by the tooth of time, but the defective pages had been all neatly 
pasted in, and the text supplied in the most accurate manner in 
a handwriting which would have done honour to any schoolmas¬ 
ter in Europe. It was the work of a common peasant. 

Mr. Henderson underwent many perils on this journey. He 
forded on horseback upward of sixty rivers, flowing cold from 
the snow and ice mountains, which are reckoned very dangerous. 
He travelled for five successive days without seeing any of the 
habitations of men. The road was cheerless and gloomy, with 
scarcely a tuft of grass to relieve the eye, or the note of a bird 
to charm the ear; but he had a delightful companion in a Banish 
officer, and he was carrying the lamp of life to those who longed 
for its light. He descended from the mountains into the beauti¬ 
ful valley of Eyafiord, and in that neighbourhood he fell in with 
a clergyman who had been seeking in vain to obtain a Bible for 
the long period of seventeen years ! He passed through a parish 
in which there were only two Bibles, and another in which there 
were none at all! It was then fifty years since the last supply 



DANISH BIBLE SOCIETY. 


277 


of Bibles had arrived in Iceland! Wherever I have come/^ 
says he, I have been welcomed as an angel from heaven. The 
people often asked me whether old King George had sent them 
the Bibles; and when I told them of the Bible Society, and the 
spirit it was diffusing in every quarter of the world, ^ It is the 
word of God,^ was the reply they frequently gave; and they 
often quoted some passage relative to the diffusion of knowledge 
pf the Lord in the latter day.’^ 

An Icelandic Bible Society was instituted in 1815; and in 
1823, the dean reported, ‘^It is a well-founded opinion, that every 
family throughout this island is now in possession of a Bible or 
Testament, and many have more than one copy. The sacred 
volume is read with diligence during the long winter evenings. 

It is with difficulty that we cease to quote from the religious 
annals of this interesting people, but we must pass on to— 

DENMARK. 

In August, 1812, the King of Denmark granted permission to 
the Eev. E. Henderson to reside at Copenhagen, for the purpose 
of completing the Icelandic Bible; and not the least valuable 
privilege allowed him was that of an unrestricted correspondence, 
—an extraordinary concession to the subject of a nation with 
whom his Danish majesty was at that time at war ! The result 
of this permitted residence was the foundation of a Bible So¬ 
ciety in Copenhagen, under the royal sanction, on the 22d of 
May, 1814. 

The wide-spread principles of infidelity presented, at the out¬ 
set, the most formidable discouragements: but success came by 
perseverance. Prince Christian of Denmark paid a visit, in 
1823, to the committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 
in Earl-street, and attended with marked interest to their pro¬ 
ceedings. We shall have piore to say of Denmark, when re¬ 
viewing the proceedings of its Bible Society from the Jubilee- 
field, in 1853; but we must now leave the Protestant countries 
of Europe, which are said to comprise altogether a population of 
fifty-five millions, and pass over the ocean to— 



278 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


THE UNITED STATES OE AMERICA. 

The first society established in the States of this great republic 
was that of Philadelphia, which dates from the year 1809. This 
society ascribed its formation to the example and influence of 
the British and Foreign Bible Society, which institution imme¬ 
diately voted the sum of 200^. to this transatlantic auxiliary^ 
whose fibres quickly took root, like those of the original tree, in 
several other principal States of the Union, to each of which was 
transmitted the usual token of friendly interest, in a donation 
of 100?. 

The case of the colonists, also, in the North American posses¬ 
sions of Great Britain, soon attracted the attention of the com¬ 
mittee, and grants were freely sent out to meet their wants, in the 
French, Gaelic, and English languages. 

It was for some of the aboriginal tribes of this district that the 
society’s funds were first applied toward printing the Scriptures 
in a foreign tongue, viz. Captain Norton’s translation of the 
Gospel of John into the Mohawk language. But as America is 
not a country or a province,—as she is, in fact, half the world,— 
she has records of her own, too many to be even noticed here 
In 1817, America had 149 Bible Societies scattered over her 
continent, 130 of which were in the United States alone; and 
the American Bible Society has ever since continued to extend 
the scale of its operations by the enlargement of its funds, the 
increase of its issues of Bibles, and the multiplication of its 
auxiliaries. Many delightful reports of her proceedings does 
this noble daughter transmit to her mother across the waves of 
the Atlantic; and ere long you shall listen to what she said at 
our Jubilee. She bids fair to evangelize her own vast continents, 
and also to be our most glorious ally in spreading the light of 
God’s word over the Old World. 


We have little space to notice, in detail, the West Indian colo¬ 
nies of the Protestant nations: they have always had the warm 




WEST INDIAN COLONIES. 


279 


sympathy- of the society, and grants were made in very early 
years to many of them. The Barbadoes Auxiliary was instituted 
in 1817, under the auspices of Lord Combermere, for the benefit 
of the negroes, who received the Scriptures with much gratitude. 
Six years after the foundation of this auxiliary, there were 1000 
children in Bridge-town under religious instruction. 

It would be in vain to attempt to enter fully into the state of 
each separate island at this period. Associations were instituted 
in almost every one of any magnitude; and those belonging to 
the Danish crown received large and continuous grants, which 
were conveyed through the devoted Moravian missionaries. No 
case of attested want of the Scriptures was addressed to the com¬ 
mittee, without finding a ready ear. 

We shall here close our review of the preliminary work of the 
Bible Society in the Protestant kingdoms of the world, and must 
reserve, for another chapter, its proceedings during the same 
twenty-five years, in still darker regions, and in the remaining 
four divisions of the earth^s population. 


CHAPTEB V. 

The Jews, after their Dispersion, in Rome, Spain, Portugal, Prance, Germany, 
Turkey, and England—Their Sufferings, and the Remission of these—Their 
Numbers all over the World—What the Society did for them in its first 
Twenty-five Years—Letters of Dr. Pinkerton from Russia—Jews at Thessa- 
lonica and Constantinople—Jewish Converts—The Society’s Work among the 
Syrian Christians in the Armenian Church, in the Nestorian, and in the 
Abyssinian—Letters from Mr. Pearce—Grants to the Vaudois Church—Its 
Gratitude. 

We have now to examine what was the work of the British 
and Foreign Bible Society among the Jews, and the remnants of 
the ancient Christian Churches, during the first twenty-five years 
of its existence. 

We shall take a distinct but rapid glance at the Jewish nation, 




280 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


in its long term of exile, to whom we have not referred since the 
period of the destruction of Jerusalem. 

The dispersion of the Jews over the world, which is commonly 
dated from the destruction of Jerusalem, had in reality begun 
long before. The Ptolemies had formed large colonies of them 
in Egypt: and in the time of Cicero, B. c. 63, there was a wealthy 
Jewish community in Italy. Philo enumerates the countries in 
which they were settled in the time of Caligula, A. D. 37, viz. in 
Syria, and in all parts of Asia Minor and Greece; and after the 
captivity of Babylon many Jews remained in Mesopotamia. 

In A. D. 131, the Emperor Adrian slew 580,000 of them in 
battle, and issued a harsh edict against the rest; but this being 
allowed to lie dormant under succeeding emperors, they erected 
new synagogues, opened schools, and acquired considerable wealth. 
During this period the ^^Mishna’^ and ^‘Gemara^^—their books 
of tradition—were composed. 

Constantine called them ^Ghe most hateful of all nations,’^ and 
made several prohibitory laws concerning them. Adrian had 
forbidden them to approach the walls of Jerusalem; and these 
harsh laws caused 'insurrection in Judea, and tumult in Alexan¬ 
dria. 

Julian the Apostate favoured them, and attempted to disprove 
the Christian prophecy, that their temple should not be rebuilt; 
but his work was miraculously destroyed as fast as it was com¬ 
pleted. 

The Gothic kings of Italy protected the Jews, who had at that 
time the slave-trade of Europe chiefly in their hands. 

The Emperor Justinian was one of those who enacted very 
cruel and oppressive laws against them. He rejected their testi¬ 
mony in courts of law, cut them off from all ofiices of dignity in 
the state, debarred them from authority even over their own chil¬ 
dren, and prevented them from bequeathing their property unless 
to Christians. This persecution, which was chiefly directed 
against the Samaritan Jews, almost extinguished that once 
flourishing community; and in subsequent history they no longer 
appear as a separate people. 



THE JEWS—THEIR SUFFERINGS. 


281 


The rise of Mohammedanism brought an unfavourable change 
to the Eastern Jews. Mohammed endeavoured at first to win 
them over; but as they would not acknowledge a descendant of 
Hagar, the bond-woman, as the greatest of prophets, Mohammed 
revenged himself upon them without mercy in Arabia, where 
they were very numerous. The caliphs were afterward more 
favourable to them;*and the Jews, following them in their tide 
of conquest along the coast of Northern Africa, contributed also 
materially to the triumphs of the crescent in Spain. 

In Spain, under the Gothic kings, this people experienced the 
first of those sweeping proscriptions which they were doomed to 
suffer in every country of Christian Europe. They were com¬ 
manded even to forsake their religion, or leave the country. 
Lashes, chains, and mutilation, with the surrender of all their 
property, were the ptinishment of all who would observe Jewish 
rites, on the old principle of compelling men to believe by force: 
this was inA. D. 653. In Moorish Spain, the Jews had after¬ 
ward a golden age, which lasted for centuries. There they culti¬ 
vated science and learning; and the names of Benjamin of 
Tudela, and Isaac of Cordova, attest their proficiency. It was in 
Spain and Portugal, after the expulsion of the Moors, that the 
Jews suffered most. The Inquisition undertook the task of 
punishing relapsed converts among them, and finally expelled 
them from Spain, to the number of half a million. Soon 
afterward, they were driven away from Portugal, under circum¬ 
stances of still greater barbarity. The expulsion of the Jews and 
the Moors drained Spain of its most useful subjects: this took 
place, A. D. 1492. 

Charlemagne protected the Jews like his other subjects. They 
were, in his reign, physicians and bankers, and even ambassadors 
of state; but under the third or Capet dynasty, they suffered 
bitter persecution throughout France. Philippe Auguste ba¬ 
nished all the Jews from his dominions, and declared all debts 
due to them null and void: again they re-entered France, and 
were once more expelled, under Philip the Fair, on the 22d of 

24» 



282 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


July, 1300: their synagogues were converted into churches, and 
even their grave-stones torn up to be used in building. 

In Germany, about the same period, viz. in the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries, the Jews were massacred repeatedly, at the 
cry of Hep ! Hep! Hep the initials of the words Hieroso- 
lyma est perdita,^^ f. e. Jerusalem is destroyed.^^ In 1236, 
they were accused of killing Christian boys Tor the sake of their 
blood for the passover, and were again hunted down. They suf¬ 
fered from fire and sword, in 1298, at Nuremberg j and in the 
thirteenth century, at Vienna, they were forbidden the use of 
the same baths and rivers with the Christians. 

In Turkey and Barbary they have since settled in great num¬ 
bers. In the eighteenth century, a milder spirit of toleration 
manifested itself toward the Jews in most of the countries of 
Europe. In Holland they have long formed a flourishing, nu¬ 
merous, honourable, and intelligent community. 

It appears that the Jews were settled in England as early as 
the Saxon period, A. D. 750. From the time of the Conquest, 
they increased in number, suffered grievously under Stephen and 
his successors, who were rapacious of their gold, and were cruelly 
persecuted by rich and poor, priest and people. 

In 1290, under Edward I., all Jews were banished from the 
kingdom. After the Bestoration, in 1660, they returned, and 
again settled in England; and since that time they have lived in 
the United Kingdom unmolested. 

Through the times of their worst oppression, in- spite of ban¬ 
ishment, robbery, and slaughter, the Jews have survived, as a 
standing miracle, in the midst of Christendom—preserved of 
God for the fulfilment of his own purposes, and in large num¬ 
bers. 

The following is a description of the present state of the Jews, 
by Professor Gaussen :— 

The restless feet of God’s ancient people are pressing, at this 
very hour, the snows of Siberia, and the burning sands of the 
desert. The missionary Gobat found numbers of them in the 
elevated nlains of Abyssinia; and when Denham and Clapperton 



NUMBER or THE JEWS. 


283 


(the first travellers who ventured across the Great Sahara) arrived 
on the banks of Lake Tchad, they also found that the wandering 
Jew had preceded them there, by many a long year. When the 
Portuguese settled in the Indian peninsula, they found three 
distinct classes of Jews; and when the English lately took pos¬ 
session of Aden, in the south of Arabia, the Jews were more in 
number there than the Gentiles. 

Ey a census taken within the last few months, in Russia, 
they amount to 2,200,000; Morocco contains 300,000, and 
Tunis 150,000. In the one small town of Sana, the capital of 
Arabia-Felix, they assemble together in eighteen synagogues. 
Yemen counts 200,000; the Turkish empire 200,000, of which 
Cpnstantinople alone contains 80,000. At Brody, where the 
Christians, who are 10,000 in number, have only three churches, 
the Jews, 20,000 in number, have 150 synagogues. Hungary 
has 300,000; Cracovic 22,000. In a word, it is imagined, that, 
were all the Jews assembled together, they would form a popu¬ 
lation of 7,000,000; so that, could you transport them into the 
land of their fathers this very year, they would form a nation 
more powerful and more numerous than the inhabitants of Hol¬ 
land and Bel^um.” 

Mr. Dudley, in 1821, mentioned numerous testimonies from 
various quarters, which evidently indicated a desire on the part 
of many Jews to receive and study the Holy Scriptures. 

In the thirteenth Report of the Bible Society, it is stated, 
that the late wars and commotions on the earth, with the pre¬ 
sent wondeHul exertions to spread the Holy Scriptures among all 
nations, seem to have made a deep impression on the minds of 
many of that ancient people. Dr. Pinkerton, in the course of 
his journeys on the continent, collected some very interesting in¬ 
formation to this effect. The committee, therefore, have pro¬ 
cured, from the Society for Promoting Christianity among the 
Jews, copies of the Gospels and Acts in Hebrew, and despatched 
supplies to the Russian, Polish, and Frankfort Bible Societies.'' 

A clergyman, travelling in Syria, says : I informed you of 
the rapidity with which I sold a considerable number of Hebrew 



284 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Testaments to the Jews at Aleppo. The day before my de¬ 
parture, the chief rabbi issued a prohibition against the purchase 
of the book. A cheap edition of the Hebrew Old Testament 
would have an easy sale in Aleppo.’^ 

Aleppo brings to mind the name of the lamented Burckhardt— 
a young man of superior talents, and the most enterprising zeal, 
who, after succeeding in opening many acceptable channels for 
the distribution of the Scriptures, and making various important 
discoveries in connection with this object, in Egypt and Syria, 
was suddenly carried off by a fever, at Aleppo, from his work to 
his reward. 

Of Mr. Burckhardt, Dr. Naudi, secretary to the Malta Bible 
Society, thus writes: 

We have seen many here who appeared to be well adapted 
to take Bibles and Testaments into Egypt, but most showed some 
fear, either of the bashaw, or of the Mussulmans, or of the differ¬ 
ent denominations of Christians, or of the Jews. But our 
esteemed Burckhardt left Malta, on board a Greek vessel, with 
six large cases full of Bibles and Testaments, in various languages 
without any fear. He read, conversed, and distributed, in the 
most open manner; and Divine Providence, which, without doubt, 
conducts these great and important objects, assisted him in every 
step,—as well in giving him a right discernment in his enter¬ 
prises, as in preparing the people for the reception of the word 
of truth. 

^^On his arrival at Alexandria, Mr. Burckhardt landed cou¬ 
rageously with all his cases, which he took to an inn, where he 
with difficulty obtained a little garret, which hardly held him and 
his possessions. After two or three days, some masons came to 
make some alteration in the inn, and began to pull down his 
room; but he, thinking the situation favourable for the sale and 
propagation of the Scriptures, would not quit the house, but re¬ 
moved with his health-giving merchandise into a shed belonging 
to it. Here he conversed with every one that passed by,—^pea¬ 
sants, strangers, and merchants, both foreign and from the inte¬ 
rior of the country. The seamen, who are very numerous at 



BURCKIIARDT—HIS ZEAL—HIS DEATH. 


285 


Alexandria, came so often to him, that he wrote to us, saying, 
that the Greek Testaments which he had dispersed would only be 
like so many drops thrown into the sea, so great wus the demand 
for the word of God. 

He departed for Grand Cairo on board a country-boat, sur¬ 
rounded by a great number of Bibles. After experiencing some 
dangers, he arrived, took a little lodging, and, as before, exposed 
his wares to public sale. Here he found that his mission was 
not only known to all, but . that he was actually waited for. Jews, 
Turks, Syrians, Copts, Christians, and Pagans, went to visit 
him, and, what is of more importance, to profit by the books he 
sold. 

A few days after his arrival, he wrote to me thus :—• My 
dear friend, I have nothing more now to give these people. All 
my stock is expended. If I had had with me twice or thrice as 
many copies of the Scriptures, I could have disposed of them 
without difficulty.' 

‘^In this central situation, he had the pleasure to arrange 
various things for the future success of our Malta Bible Society, 
in those extensive countries, with the bishops, patriarchs, and 
other persons of rank. The Coptic patriarch has requested an 
edition in Cop tic-Arabic, for the use of his fiock, which most 
useful measure will be, I hope, attended to. 

From Cairo Mr. Burckhardt went to Jerusalem, where he 
-^visited all the convents and public places, and furnished them 
everywhere with the word of God. At length, leaving Jerusa¬ 
lem, going by Syria, and visiting many places on his road, he 
came to the great and commercial city of Aleppo, in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of which, a fatal fever put an end to his valuable life; 
and thus, alas! we have been deprived of his earnest services. 

“ His memory will ever remain dear to us. All the friends 
of the Bible, who have any knowledge of what he has done in the 
Levant, have shed tears for him. By means of a friend who left 
this place yesterday, we have written to announce the sad event 
to his father in Switzerland, and have enclosed the last latter his 
son wrote to us, dated from Antioch." 



286 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


In the year 1822, Messrs. Henderson and Paterson sent some 
very interesting reports to the society, from Russia, concerning 
the Jews. A Bible Association was formed in the town of Ber- 
ditchev, which is inhabited by 16,000 Jews, several of whom 
aided it by their subscriptions, and not only purchased copies of 
the Old, but seemed also anxious to obtain the New Testament. 
On this journey they received the most convincing proofs of the 
eagerness of Jews to receive and read the testimony of the Messiah. 
The travellers had previously ordered supplies of Hebrew New 
Testaments to be sent from St. Petersburg, to meet them at the 
more important stations. In the town of Jitomir, in particular, 
their lodgings were almost besieged by Jews, who form by far 
the most numerous part of the population, to whom they gave 
copies, after ascertaining their ability to read and understand the 
Hebrew. 

Having learned that there was a settlement of Karaite or Re¬ 
formed Jews in the town of Lutzk, Mr. Henderson visited that 
place from Ostrog, to ascertain how the Scriptures might be dis¬ 
tributed among them. In their appearance, their manners, and 
mode of worship, these people form a striking contrast to the other 
Jews. Unshackled by the trammels of the Talmud, they are more 
open to conviction, and better able to judge of the truth of what 
is proposed for their belief. The travellers wrote thus: ^^We had 
entertained the hope, that some of the Hebrew New Testaments 
might be advantageously disposed of among them, but, to our no 
small joy and surprise, found they were already in possession of 
the Book, and seemed to be perusing it without prejudice. The 
rabbi himself produced a copy from his library, in the course of 
our conversation relative to the fulfilment of ancient prophecy, and 
he spoke of its contents with high respect, before a large company, 
who had collected at his house, in order to listen to our commu¬ 
nications. 

They are not convinced that the Messiah is already come, but 
their minds seem to be interested in no ordinary degree by the 
subject; and, were proper measures adopted for directing their 
attention to the true meaning of their own Scriptures, the para- 



THE KARAITE JEWS. 


287 


mount authority of which forms one of the most distinguishing 
parts of their creed, there is every probability that many of them 
would he brought to the acknowledgment of Jesus Christ and 
him crucified, as their Messiah. It deserves to be recorded, to 
the honour of the Karaites of Lutzk, that, for the space of 200 
years, no instance of law-suit or prosecution against them is to he 
found in'the public documents of the place. They still retain the 
use of the Tartar language in their daily intercourse, and also in 
the synagogue for the purpose of explaining the Hebrew text of 
the Law.” 

In the old Turkish town of Khotim, the master of the inn at 
which they slept was a Jew. He told them, that, on the next day, 
the whole Jewish population, men, women, and children, were 
to repair to the hanks of the Dniester, in order to welcome a 
new rabbi from Poland, who is reputed to be as holy, and to 
possess the power of performing wonders as great as any of the 
ancient prophets in the land of promise. Before leaving Kho¬ 
tim, the agents presented their landlord with a copy of the Hebrew 
New Testament, which he accepted with every mark of gratitude, 
and they left him and another intelligent Jew busily engaged in 
reading the history of Christ, to whom all the prophets gave 
witness. 

In a letter from Dr. Pinkerton, (1825,) which describes a severe 
illness that had compelled him to return home, and relinquish, for 
a time, his tOur in Greece and Turkey, he mentions two interesting 
facts; viz. that an African Jew had lately purchased thirty-three 
Hebrew Bibles at Malta, and carried them with him to Tunis, 
for the use of his brethren there; and that at Gibralter another 
Jew had purchased 132 Hebrew Bibles, to carry with him to Leg¬ 
horn, for the schools of his brethren in that place. 

At Thessalonica, or Saloniki, where Paul himself first preached 
the gospel after his release from imprisonment at Philippi, (Acts 
xvii. 1-10,) there are still from 25,000 to 30,000 Jews who speak 
the Jewish-Spanish language, and for whom the New Testament, 
in that version, will be particularly serviceable, if a way should, 
in the providence of God, be opened for introducing it among 



'288 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


them.* At first these Jews declined to purchase the Hebrew 
Scriptures offered them by Mr. Barker j but eventually they took 
his whole stock, and requested that more might be sent. How 
interesting for them to find, in the 17th chapter of the Acts, the 
subject of the apostle’s own mission to their ancestors, nearly 
1800 years ago ! How delightful to be a successor of the apostles, 
in the character of a Bible Society agent, and return to the chil¬ 
dren that which we have received from their fathers ! 

The Hebrew New Testament appeared to obtain access imme¬ 
diately to the minds of many Jews who had never before seen it. 
Hr. Pinkerton gave away five New Testaments in Poland, to those 
who had never read the doctrines of Christ and his apostles in 
Hebrew. They all commenced reading with great avidity, and 
before he left them, gave proofs of their understanding well what 
they read. In other places, he says, he could have distributed 
hundreds of copies, had he possessed them. 

In 1827, a very pleasant account is given by the late Bev. H. H. 
Leeves, the society’s agent at Constantinople, of some Jewish 
converts, who suffered much for their belief in Jesus. They had 
read the New Testament secretly for three years, and were ready to 
confess Christ before men, which they were shortly called to do. 
The Jewish rabbins denounced those Jews who had visited the 
Bible agents. Three of them were seized, one bastinadoed, and 
all thrown into prison, where they were put in irons. When 
brought before the grand vizier, they boldly declarecl themselves 
to be Christians, and said the only reason why they were perse¬ 
cuted by their fellow-countrymen was, that they believed that the 
Messiah was come. These Jewish enemies used all their efforts 
to obtain the execution of one of their number, saying, like the 
Jews, of old, ‘‘We demand the death of this accursed man, tyhose 
blood be upon us !” This is the more remarkable, as the Jews, 
never allow (if it be possible to prevent it, by the forfeit of even 
thousands of piastres) any one of their nation to be put to death 


See forty-first Report. The printing of this version was completed at 
Athens in 1845. 




CONVERTED JEWS. 


.289 


by the Turks: but the dragoman of the Porte, to his honour, re¬ 
fused to dip his hands in innocent blood; and, in a conversation 
with Mr. Hartley, actually compared their conduct to that of their 
forefathers before Pilate. The accused were, however, thrown 
into prison for a term of six months. 

When cruel accusation had failed, the Jews assailed them with 
all the temptations of persuasion: a full pardon with immediate 
deliverance was promised to them if they returned to their old re¬ 
ligion; and, when they still stood firm, it was falsely announced to 
them, that next morning they would be led to execution. Thus, 
for a whole night they had the view of death before their eyes, and 
they spent that night in reading the New Testament with weeping 
and prayer. Through the agency of these cruel Jews, their labour 
and sufferings in the prison to which they were condemned were 
multiplied tenfold, but their faith and love to Christ put to shame 
those who had long borne the Christian name. 

Mr. Leeves says of them : Their Christianity is indeed the 
work of the New Testament, and the members of the Bible So¬ 
ciety may rejoice over their conversion, as the fruit, under God, 
of their exertions in the circulation of the Scriptures. One of 
these good men, when baptized, chose the name of John Baptist, 
from his wish to imitate his example, and, like him, to prepare 
the way of the Saviour by preaching to his brethren the Jews.’^ 

In the letters of Mr. Leeves, appended to the twenty-fourth 
Beport of the Society, the following particulars concerning these 
converted Jews are given. They were subjected to long-con¬ 
tinued trial of their faith and patience in the prison. Two of 
them remained steadfast, one of whom was John Baptist. The 
third, whose name was David, relapsed to Judaism. He still, 
however, remained in prison with the rest; and it was generally 
believed that the Jews would not pardon him though he returned 
to them, as, having been baptized, he would always be esteemed 
by them as a polluted person. 

The imprisonment was lengthened out to three years, and any 
one during that period daring to demand flieir deliverance was 
to be thrown into the same prison with them. The unfortunate 

25 



290 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


backslider shared in their continued punishment, and the Jews, 
willingly gave him up as a sacrifice. He therefore gained nothing 
by his denial of bis Master. 

In the year 1829, it was announced that these Jews had been 
released from their imprisonment, and that the two remained 
.steadfast. The reports of them continued satisfactory, and they 
were successful in bringing over several others to the knowledge 
of the truth. Thirteen converts were, through their means, 
baptized, and made ready to suffer persecution. They were ban¬ 
ished to Cesarea; and it was among the most pleasing of Mr. 
Barker’s duties to forward copies of the Scriptures for their com¬ 
fort during their banishment. John Baptist afterward visited 
Mr. Barker, at Smyrna; and it was considered that the way was 
preparing for the further triumph of the gospel among the 
Jews of the Levant. Thus much for the mission of the British 
and Foreign Bible Society, for five-and-twenty years among the^ 
Jews. And now we take in order the remnants of the Ancient 
Christian Churches. 

) 

THE BRITISH, THE SYRIAN, THE ARMENIAN, THE NESTORIAN, 
THE ABYSSINIAN, AND THE VAUDOIS CHURCHES. 

The ancient British Church was cared for by the Bible So¬ 
ciety in their early gift of the Scriptures to Wales and to Scot- 
, land; and for Ihe blessing on the descendants of the ancient 
primitive Church in Ireland, we must look from the Jubilee-field, 
and also under the head of Protestant Countries. 


THE SYRIAN CHURCH. 

We did not say much, in the former part of this Book, about 
the ancient Syrian churches, as existing in India. “ Their rem¬ 
nants are now to be found,” says the Bombay Report for 1818, 
“ in Cochin, which, of all the places within the reach of this so¬ 
ciety in India, is the most interesting.” 

The Christians of St. Thomas had been long seated on the 



THE SYRIAN CHURCH. 


291 


coast of Malabar, when the Portuguese first opened the naviga¬ 
tion of India. They were probably converted to Christianity by 
the Syrian, Mar Thomas, a Nestorian, who has been confounded 
with the Apostle St. Thomas. During the seventh century, their 
church was considerably increased by the labours of two Syrians, 
Mar Sopor, and Mar Pedosis. 

On the arrival of the Portuguese, these Christians,” says Mr. 
Gibbon, excelled the natives of Hindustan in arts, in arms, and 
probably in virtue. The husbandmen cultivated the palm-trade, 
the merchants were enriched by the pepper-trade, the soldiers 
preceded the nobles of Malabar, and their hereditary privileges 
were respected by the King of Cochin himself. They were go¬ 
verned by the Bishop of Cranganore, who asserted his ancient 
title of ^Metropolitan of India;’ he executed his jurisdiction 
in 1400 churches, and was intrusted with the care of 200,000 
souls.” 

It was the first desire of the ministers of Borne, now arrived 
from Portugal, to intercept all correspondence with the Nestorian 
patriarch, and many of his bishops expired in the prisons of the 
holy office. The power of the Portuguese, the arts of the Jesuits, 
and the zeal of the Archbishop of Goa, who personally visited 
the coast of Malabar, greatly troubled, if it did not destroy, this 
Protestant Church in India, while they had also to complain of 
the cold and silent indifference of their brethren of Europe. 

Many of these Syrian churches are found to be still^ in exist¬ 
ence ; and the Bombay committee of the Bible Society took care 
to present them with the few copies of the Syriac Gospels which 
they had received from England. It was proved that they would 
very thankfully receive larger supplies. 

The eighth Beport of the British and Foreign Bible Society 
contains a reference to the Christians dispersed over Hindustan, 
including Ceylon, and in number said to be nearly 1,000,000,— 
few of them having the happiness to possess the Sacred Scriptures. 

Many of the descendants of these ancient Christians have, 
from the want of these precious records, relapsed into idolatry, 
and are Christians only in name. It was determined to aid them, 



292 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


by a grant to the Society at Calcutta, of Bibles, Testaments, and 
printing-paper, to the value of lOOOZ.* 

When Dr. Buchanan, in 1806, visited the Syrian Christians 
in India, he found several important manuscripts of great anti¬ 
quity, which he brought with him to England. The last years 
of his useful and laborious life were devoted to the preparation 
of a printed edition from these manuscripts; and he died, so to 
speak, with the sheets of the Syriac Testament in his hands. A 
short time prior to his decease, he w'as walking with a friend in 
the churchyard at Clapham, when he suddenly stopped and burst 
into tears. As soon as he had recovered his self-possession, he 
said to his friend, ‘‘Do not be alarmed; I am not ill; but I was 
completely overcome with the recollection of the delight with 
which I had engaged in the exercise of preparing the Syriac 
Scriptures. At first I was disposed to shrink from the task as 
irksome, and feared I should find even the Scriptures pall by the 
frequency of this critical examination. But, so far from it, 
every fresh reading only seemed to throw fresh light upon the 
word of God, and to convey additional joy and consolation to my 
mind.^^ 

In 1811, also. Dr. Buchanan forwarded some intelligence re¬ 
specting these Indian Christians. He spoke of fifty-five churches 
in Malayala (comprehending the region between Cape Comorin 
and Cape Illi) acknowledging the Patriarch of Antioch. ‘* These,’^ 
said he, “ are Syrian Christians: they derive their liturgy from 
the early church at Antioch. What copies they have of the 
Scriptures are in Syriac, and they need them translated into the 
Malayalim. They have attempted to do this themselves, but in 
vain. When a proposal was made, that a Malayalim translation 
should be sent to each of their fifty-five churches, as a standard 
book, on condition that they would transcribe and circulate the 
copies among the people, the elders replied, that, so great was 


* Paper was sent out as a grant from the Parent Society, owing to the enor¬ 
mous price of that article in India, at this time. A small edition of the New 
Testament, in 1811, of 1000 copies only, if printed in India, would cost 1000^. 
on account of the high price of paper. 




NATIVE BOOKS—DR. BUCHANAN. 


293 


their desire to have the Bible in the vulgar tongue, that it might 
be expected that every man who could write would make a copy 
on ollas (palm leaves) for his own faniily.^^ 

Perhaps you have never seen these ollas on which the natives 
of India used to write; they now chiefly use paper. They are 
long, narrowish leaves, very much like our stiff, flat Iris leaves, 
with the top and bottom cut ofiP, only of a stouter texture. They 
are dried in the sun, and written upon with an iron style or pen. 
Over the'characters thus made, lamp-black is rubbed, and the 
traced letters receive a black impression: the leaves are strung 
together by a riband, two round holes being stamped in each leaf. 
This kind of book is not now so common as it was, but is rather 
a literary curiosity. 

In the Beport for 1819, the committee notice an edition of 
4000 copies of the Syrian Old Testament, as being ready to ac¬ 
company the New Testament before printed: they also sorrow¬ 
fully allude to the death of the Bev. Dr. Buchanan, who had in¬ 
terested himself so zealously for these Syrian Christians, and the 
last act of whose life was preparing for them that Holy Book 
which they now possess and peruse with great satisfaction and 
thankfulness. Dr. Buchanan only lived to superintend the issue 
of this impression, up to the close of the Acts of the Apostles; 
and the revision of the rest was completed by Professor Lee. 

In 1821, the Syrian Christians in Travancore had been supplied 
with these New Testaments, and some Nestorians residing in 
Jerusalem were much pleased with them, and said they would sell 
rapidly in Diarhekir. 

.Besides these Syrian churches, there is in Cochin a large popu¬ 
lation of Protestants, the remains qf the Dutch colonists; and 
among the Christians who have settled iij India, the Dutch have 
very justly the merit of having done much toward the prpmotipn 
of Christianity. They established schools, and caused the New 
Testament and a great part of the Old to be translated into the 
Malabar language. To these the committee sent a grant of the 
Dutch Scriptures, as their establishments are now much neglected 
and fallen ipto decay, having lost their pittance of salary. 



294 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


There is still also another race of people in Cochin, particularly 
interestinor,—the White and Black Jews of Malabar, in whose 
record-chest, you will remember. Dr. Buchanan, in 1806, found 
the old Hebrew roll, which is now deposited at Cambridge. 

Some of these Syrian Christians are found at Aleppo. Mr. 
Barker, in 1825, mentions a visit from a Syrian bishop, who came 
to Aleppo on his way to Jerusalem. This prelate assured him, 
that, throughout all Mesopotamia, the Holy Scriptures in the 
Carshun language (Arabic, with Syriac characters) would prove 
a most acceptable'gift to the Christians. The Syrian bishop was 
accompanied by a member of his church, who observed, that the 
Arabic New. Testament had proved a real consolation to his 
brother, long deprived of the use of his limbs; and that he had 
read it again and again, and had found in it things of which 
before he was wholly ignorant. 

THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 

In the year 1815, the Armenian Bible, in quarto, was being 
printed for the use of the Armenian inhabitants of Bussia, who 
had subscribed liberally to tbe institution. They took a great 
interest in the publication of the Scriptures, also subscribing for 
half the edition of the New Testament of 5000 copies; and the 
Bible Society agreed to assist this desirable undertaking by a 
donation of 500Z. From Bussia, in the same year. Dr. Pinker¬ 
ton writes: “Thus is the blessing of the Lord upon our labours, 
and astonishing is the manner in which Divine Providence breaks 
up the way before us, and gives us hopes of soon seeing the word 
of God spread among all the nations between us and India. Our 
Calmuc-Tartar, Armenian, and Georgian editions of the Scrip¬ 
tures, are the glorious links of a chain of life, which will soon 
unite us with our Indian co-labourers.’' 

In 1814, the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society undertook a 
large edition of the Armenian Scriptures, at the earnest request 
of Johannes Sarkies, a principal Armenian, at Calcutta, who him¬ 
self came forward with 5000 rupees, as the united subscription 
of his countrymen to that work. 



THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 


295 


These Armenians are scattered all over Asia. They have 
churches in various parts of the Granges’ side of India, at Madras, 
Bombay, Surat, Bagdad, Busheer, Muscat, and other places. Je¬ 
rusalem, Diarbekir, and Constantinople are patriarchal seats. 
These people have formed settlements wherever they have found 
an opening for trade. They are found in many places in Hin¬ 
dustan; and a very considerable number of them are settled, as 
has been said, in Bussia, and also at Venice. 

At Venice, the most correct copies of their Bible had been 
printed; but they were very dear and scarce. In Calcutta, an 
Armenian Bible could not be purchased, in 1815, under sixty or 
seventy rupees; indeed, it was only procurable at that price, on 
the death of any gentleman, at the sale of his books. In Calcutta, 
the Armenians are rich; “and if,” says the Calcutta committee, 
“the want of a Bible is so great here, what must it be in other 
places V’ 

Two thousand copies of this old version, made in A. D. 460, and 
long existent in manuscript, were reprinted at the Serampore 
press, in 1817; and in the same year the St. Petersburg Bible 
Society printed 5000 copies for the use of the Armenians'in 
Bussia. 

In the successive years of 1818, 1819, and 1823, the society 
purchased at Venice, and also printed at Constantinople, various 
editions for the use of the Christians in Armenia. The gradual 
influence of the dispersion of this ancient or ecclesiastical version, 
on the educated part of the people, will be made evident in further 
records. 

Missionaries from America have laboured very much among 
this people, who now speak a dialect called the Modern Armenian, 
into which it has likewise been found necessary to translate the 
Scriptures. 

The British and Foreign Bible Society made the first attempt 
on record, to produce a version in this dialect. A modern version 
of the New Testament was completed, in 1824, by Dr. Zohrab, 
under their auspices; and it was printed at Paris, in parallel 
columns, with the ancient Armenian: the results of the distribu- 



296 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


tion of this version also, which are really unprecedented, will be 
stated on a future page. We have said thus much about the 
Armenians, becajise they are a people of much importance from 
their numbers. Their merchants conduct all the traffic and 
manufactures of Turkey and Persia, and their hierarchy, in India 
alone, equals in numbers that of Great Britain; added to which, 
the Paulicians, a sect which arose in Armenia, are, in some sense, 
through the Waldenses and Wiclif, enrolled among the spiritual 
ancestry of our reformers. 

THE NESTORIAN CHURCH. 

Concerning the Nestorian Christians there is not much at this 
era to say. The language they speak is nearly identical with the 
Syriac. The edition for which they petitioned left the press in 
1819. ‘^So great is the antipathy of this people to popery, that 
they have a singular and most anti-Christian custom of cursing 
the pope regularly every day, his grandfather, grandmother, and 
grandchildren V’ 


THE ABYSSINIAN CHURCH. 

In 1811, the committee, owing to intelligence brought home 
by the traveller, Mr. Salt, concluded to print an Ethiopic version 
of the book of Psalms, for the use of the nations of Abyssinia, 
and they endeavoured to procure a version of one of the Gospels 
in that language, with a view to the same object. 

There is a remarkable account of the reception of these Psal¬ 
ters in Abyssinia, communicated in a letter from Mr. Nathaniel 
Pearce, an agent employed by Mr. Scott, who was then consul- 
general for Egypt. This agent was seen by Mr. Jowett in 1819, 
and is described as a ‘‘wild, tall man, dressed in a sheepskin, 
waiting with his camels at the gate of the consulate, just come 
from'Abyssinia, a journey of eighty-nine days, troubles having 
compelled him to quit the country. 

The following is an extract from the letter:—“The books of 



THE ABYSSINIAN CHURCH. 


297 


the Psalters/’ says Mr. Pearce, ‘‘in Ethiopic, which you sent 
into this country, I have carefully and diligently distributed to 
the different churches and holy places, in the name of the Bible 
• Society. I must tell you that the people find some faults in 
them. The ink, they say, is not black enough, the strokes too 
thin, the letters too much crowded together, no red ink at the 
name of God, etc., no books of the blessed Virgin,,Solomon, and 
the Prophets, written as they are in this country; so they cannot 
accept them as church books; but in exactness they allow them 
to excel their own writing, and they are very partial to those in 
red morocco bindings! I presented two to the king, Itsa Takley 
Gorges.” Mr. Pearce says again : “ I have the pleasure to inform 
you, that I have had the honour of being called before an assembly 
of not less than eighty of the most learned priests in Abyssinia. 
This meeting was held in the presence of the king, on the top of 
the flat-roofed church, at Axuni, on the 6th of December, 1817. 
The first question I was asked, was, ‘Who wrote those books; 
and by whose orders were they written V They next asked me 
if one man wrote all those books, they being all exactly alike, 
observing that these books could not be written in ten years by 
ten men in this country. I did all in my power to make them 
understand how they were printed, but they would not believe 
that one man could engrave the print in less than twenty years. 
The king said, ‘If I were to try to cut the letters in wood, much 
'more in brass or any other metal, it would take me a whole day 
to complete fifteen or sixteen; and after they were finished, how 
many years it would take me to put them together!” 

So you see the Abyssinians, in 1817, had not partaken of the 
light from the printing-press, which had then pervaded the con¬ 
tinent of Europe for nearly 300 years. 

The four Gospels were completed in Ethiopic, for their use, in 
1826, and the entire New Testament was published in 1830. 

Ethiopic, however, is only the language for the learned men 
of Abyssinia;-Amharic is its vulgar tongue: and, concerning 
the Amharic translation, many interesting particulars have al¬ 
ready been given, in our account of the library at the Bible 



298 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Society House. The translation, purchased by Mr. Jowett, 
occupied M. Asselin and his aged companion ten years. Tues¬ 
days and Saturdays they shut their door against everybody, and 
translated from the Arabic, the Hebrew, and the Syriac, into the 
Amharic. 

The New Testament was published in 1829, and this work 
was seen to be of immense importance, as the translation made 
for a people who were already students of Scripture, as far as 
they possessed it, whose first study was the Bible, whose first 
spiritual want the gospel, which they read over and over again 
constantly every day. Mr. Jowett says, “How deeply Christian¬ 
ity must once have been seated in the hearts of the Abyssinians, 
appears from a great variety of proofs. How delightful once 
more to restore to them a general knowledge of the Scriptures!— 
to a country in the heart of Africa,—a • continent which seems 
left to these latter ages of the world to remind the benevolent of 
something they have not done,—the learned of something they 
have not discovered.’^ 

“One day,” said the devoted missionary, Mr. Gobat, (now 
Bishop of Jerusalem,) “I am all joy with the hope that, in a 
short time, the Abyssinian mission will be crowned with success: 
the following day I am cast down to the very dust, by the idea, 
that all attempts will be useless: for the Abyssinians very gene¬ 
rally yield to the truth, but it is only for a while. They cannot 
make up their minds to quit so much as one of their customs. 
Thus, faith is tried for a time, yet the promise is sure, that God’s 
^word shall not return unto him void;’ and the day, perhaps, is 
near, when Ethiopia will stretch out her hands unto God.” 

THE VAUDOIS CHURCH. 

In the Beport for 1816, it is stated that a Bible Society has 
been organized among the Waldenses inhabiting the valleys of 
Piedmont, which comprise thirteen parishes, and a population of 
17,000 souls; but such is the poverty of the people, that they 
were not able to collect more than 50Z. for the purpose of purchas- 



THE VAUDOIS CHURCH. * 


299 


ing the Scriptures. The committee, in consideration of their 
peculiar circumstances, and doubtless in recollection of their past 
history, presented them with a donation of 200^. 

A letter from the secretary of this small society says, ^‘The 
misery is extreme in our valleys, which are inundated with a 
legion of Piedmontese beggars, who, though Catholics, come to 
implore the charity of the Protestants. The continual wants of 
the body occasion almost an entire forgetfulness of those of the 
soul; and we cannot flatter ourselves that we shall receive more 
than 1000 francs in our thirteen churches. Our brethren at 
Turin have, however, promised to double our funds; yet, even 
with this addition, it will be impossible for us to furnish the 
fiftieth part of the Bibles we want: few families here possess the 
means of procuring them from foreign parts, at heavy expense. 
The Basle Bible Society has twice gratified us with a gift of 86 
New Testaments, and 100 additional copies are speedily expected 
to arrive. We hope that God, who has favoured us with this 
supply, will increase it. Next to Him, we look to the British 
nation and to your noble society for support. Without England, 
the Yaudois would long since have ceased to exist. Its govern¬ 
ment has paid a kind attention to their temporal wants. Its 
Bible Society will alsq deign, they hope, to consider its spiritual 
wants.^^ 

In answer to this request, the grant before mentioned was made, 
and warm were the thanks which it brought from the heart of the 
mountains. “Your generosity actually electrifies us; but to God 
we give thanks for what we receive, praising and magnifying his 
Holy Name, at the same time supplicating him to bless your per¬ 
sons and your labours. We laid the foundations and established 
the first rules of the Yaudois Bible Society, on the very day on 
which you were so kindly occupying yourselves about us. How do 
we rejoice over the advantage of being in connection, and as it 
were in contact of heart and mind, with you, dear and honoured 
brethren I” 

In 1818, the Bible Society established at La Tour, for the 
valleys of Piedmont, had distributed 150 Bibles and 1865 New 



300 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Testaments. ^^The poor inhabitants of those valleys, stirred up 
again by the spirit which so eminently distinguished their pious 
ancestors, come and earnestly entreat to be received as members 
of the Waldenses’ Bible Society, and urge the acceptance of such 
mites as they are able to present.” 


CHAPTER vi. 


The Work of the Bible Society among Roman Catholics—The Greek Church— 
Distribution of the Bible by Roman Catholic Priests—General willingness 
of the Roman Catholic Laity to receive it—Anecdotes—Leander Van Ess 
—France—Professor Kieffer—The Prayer of the Dying Sister, and its An¬ 
swer—Austria and Belgium—The Roman Catholic Portion of Germany, Prus¬ 
sia, Poland, and Switzeidand—Italy, Spain, and Portugal—Russia: the Bible 
Society there; its Extinction—The Tribe of Buriats—Turkey, European 
and Asiatic; its mixed Population—The Turks—Foreign Agency—Mr 
Barker—Greece—South America—Dr. Thomson—A few Words on the Apo¬ 
crypha—The Mohammedan Countries—The Heathen Countries. 


We must now pass on to inquire what had been the distribution 
of the Bible among the members of Roman Catholic and Greek 
churches, all over the world, during the first twenty-five years of 
the existence of the Bible Society. 

In the very first Report of the Society, a singular feature of its 
history was presented in the lett'er of a Roman Catholic priest, in 
Swabia, to Dr. SteinkoplF. He had heard,” he said, ‘‘of the 
example of the Bible Society, who were filled with a noble desire 
to send out the pure word of God, as the best preacher, into the 
world, and he wished it a thousand blessings. He allowed that 
all blind bigots of his church had always spread the opinion that 
it was entirely forbidden for all laymen to read the Bible; but he 
declared there were many clergymen in Swabia who did every 
thing in their power to promote the reading of the Bible, espe¬ 
cially of the New Testament; that Iheir number was daily in- 




THE BIBLE AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS. 


301 


creasing j and that they even felt a desire to form a Bible So¬ 
ciety among themselves, but that, in the mean time, he would be 
glad of Scriptures to circulate.’^ The Bible Society thought this 
opening worthy of their particular attention, and they authorized 
the society at Nuremberg to furnish 1000 copies of the Protestant 
edition of the New Testament, for sale or gift among the Homan 
Catholics of Swabia. 

In 1810, from several parts in the southeastern provinces of 
France, authentic accounts had been received, that many Boman 
Catholics requested copies of the New Testament, and had perused 
them with great eagerness and gratitude. 

In a yet earlier year of the society. Pastor Oberlin had given, 
in a letter to the committee, a vivid sketch of the desire after 
Bibles in the interior of France. He told of the villages of the 
Steinthal/ ih which he himself laboured, and which had been 
evangelized fifty years previously by the good Pastor Huber, who 
sent for fifty French Protestant Bibles from Basle, had them di¬ 
vided into three parts, and bound in strong parchment, which 
made 150 books. These he lent in the schools, even permitting 
the scholars to take them home. 

A Boman Catholic entered a house in one of these villages, 
and spied in the window a thick book with a lock. Having heard 
that Bibles had this appearance, he took it down, looked at the 
title, and asked if one could have such a Bible for a crown. The 
owner answered, Yes.^’ The Catholic threw down the crown, 
and ran away with the Bible to his own village. From that time 
the demand increased continually, and several hundred Bibles 
were sold, given, or lent; many copies, In^ever, were taken by 
the priests from the people, as of old time, and burnt, and some¬ 
times violent contention took place about them. 

Once a priest surprised one of his people over the Bible, 
snatched it from him with bitter reproaches, and was going off 
with it, when the man, who had seen the world, and often heard 
from his neighbours of the priests taking away their Bibles, jumped 
up, seized his hanger, placed himself before the door, and cried 
out, ^ Mons. le Cure! replace that Bible on the table! I respect 



302 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY 


your character; but a thief is no pastor. I will rather cut you 
in pieces than suffer you to steal a Bible which has been kindly 
lent to me.^ The priest restored the Bible, but ordered the man 
to return it to the owner; and thus many were returned to us.’^ 

About the same period, in Grermany, a Roman Catholic cler¬ 
gyman writes, Blessed be God, we have at last a cheap Bible 
for the people of our own persuasion ! The printing is happily 
completed at Ratisbon, and several thousand copies are now 
circulating in various Roman Catholic provinces of Germany. 
I myself distributed 650 copies. Eight of our clergymen have 
publicly announced the excellent Ratisbon Institution, and most 
earnestly recommend the reading of the Holy Scriptures. Im¬ 
mediately after their sermons, numbers applied, and 2000 copies 
were not sufficient to satisfy them all. The Bible is now read 
by students, by the people, and even by children. My friend. 
Professor Sailer, sent 600 copies to his friends in the Roman 
Catholic cantons of Switzerland, and I did the same to mine in 
Austria.’^' 

Several Protestant di\dnes, having seen this edition of the 
New Testament translated by the Roman Catholics at Ratis¬ 
bon, pronounce it to be faithfully translated from the original 
Greek. 

Some of the letters from Roman Catholic clergymen, at¬ 
tached to the first Reports, excite a mixture of pleasure and 
surprise. Whatever these good men may have called them¬ 
selves, they seem to have belonged in spirit to the Universal 
Church of the Book, and in their own countries they aided 
not a little in its dispersion in the early years of the Bible 
Society. 

The higher powers of the Roman Catholic Church did not at 
first seem awakened to perceive what would be the results of 
this spread of the Bible. The country clergy might then act 
as they pleased; and if they were, now free from the iron hand 
of spiritual despotism, under which they groan, numbers of them 
would still probably take their stand upon the word of God. 

At the late Jubilee-meeting, in Exeter-hall, the Duke of 



LEANDER VAN ESS. 


303 


•^rgyll^ who is presideot of the Scottish Bible Society, express¬ 
ed his firm conviction on this point, that the great mass of 
the people in Roman Catholic countries would be ready and willing 
to read and acknowledge the authority of the Bible, if allowed 
to act freely for themselves.'’^ 

By the year 1814, the Bible Society began to prove that 
the Bible is not a book exclusively for the clergy and the 
learned, but the Book for the human race. In the Report 
for that year, is first mentioned the honoured name of Leander 
Van Ess, Catholic professor of divinity at Marbourg. He was 
a clergyman, who, with his brother, had produced an excellent 
translation of the New Testament, from the Greek into Ger¬ 
man, and desired help from the Bible Society to circulate it. 
They voted him 200^., on condition that the few notes accom¬ 
panying his own impression should be struck out. Generously 
sustained in succeeding years by grant after grant from the 
committee, and in defiance of mandates which began to issue 
from Rome, of the old kind, in favour of tradition, and in 
check of Bible distribution, this diligent professor saw the dis¬ 
persion of many editions of his New Testament, and had the 
joy of gratifying the great and irresistible desire of the people 
to have the Bible.Mr. Owen saw him, at Basle, in 1818, 
and describes him as ^^a most interesting man, in the prime 
of life, apparently about forty years of age: his countenance 
is intelligent and manly, his conversation fiuent and animated, 
and his whole manner partaking of that ardour and vivacious 
energy which so remarkably characterize all his writings and 
operations. The dissemination of the Holy Scriptures, and the 
blessed effects with which it is attended, are the theme on 
which he delights to discourse: they seem to occupy his whole 
soul, and to constitute, in a manner, the element in which he 
existff; 

The letters of Leander Van Ess to the committee are, in 
themselves, treasures of Christian love and energy. We cannot 
quote them, but they are all in these Bible Reports, which now, 
as in a long-closed mine, contain ungathered gems of history,— 



304 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


a history which would be thought worth tracing even by the 
angels of God. 

A child once said to us^ Why do they not^ make history 
lessons from the lives of God’s men, who have done good in the 
world, and give them to children, instead of the histories of 
kings, and the men who have made war in the world Such 
histories are laid up here in great abundance. Here are the 
sacred relics of hearts which burned, with the pure flame of devo¬ 
tion and zeal, in the noblest work in which man can engage on 
earth, and whese ^^work of faith and labour of love” the All- 
seeing One has remembered, while, perhaps, man has forgotten; 
for the circulation of his word is his own design, and he has ever 
watched over it, and brought it to pass. It shall prosper in 
that whereto he hath sent it.” 


In the wide glance we have wished to take over the Eoman 
Catholic kingdoms,—over France, Austria, Belgium, half of 
Germany, two-fifths of Prussia, Poland, two-fifths of Switzer¬ 
land, over Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and also over Mexico, and 
the whole continent of South America, together with the work 
of the Society among the members of the Greek Church in 
Greece, in European and Asiatic Turkey, and in European and 
Asiatic Russia, —our heart almost fails us in entering into de¬ 
tail ]—there is so much to tell, and so little space in which to tell 
it. It were easy to write a book on the dispersion of the Bible 
in any one of these kingdoms; but to give you a definite idea of 
its work in all, —that is the difficulty. The Homan Catholic 
religion in Europe is professed by 120 millions of people, which 
is half the European population. The Greek church numbers 
more than 55 millions; and, added together, they are 175 millions, 
as nearly as calculation can be made. Let us just see what, in 
1829, had been the result of the spread of the Bible in— 




BIBLE DISTRIBUTION IN FRANCE. 


305 


FRANCE. 

It is known to be a fact, that, even in 1814, some pious Eng¬ 
lishmen, who came to Paris, made an attempt to meet with a 
French Bible of any version, and that they were unsuccessful in 
their search. 

In 1813, the Bible Society subscribed 250Z. to a stereotype 
edition of Le Maistre de Sacy’s Version of the New Testament 
for the use of the Catholics in France. In 1818, when Mr. Owen 
paid a visit in Paris to Professor Kieffer, and found him revising 
the Turkish Bible, his thoughts were also busy on what might be 
done among the Boman Catholic portion of the population. His 
distributions among them in 1819 and 1820 cost the committee 
upward of 2000?. Professor Kieffer was appointed as regular 
agent in 1820, and continued so to act until 1833. His issues, 
during this period, amounted to more than 730,000 copies, chiefly 
among Homan Catholics. 

In 1830, when religious liberty was at its height in France, a 
strenuous effort was made to aid the religious movement which it 
had commenced in Paris, with a view to evangelize the Homan 
Catholics. Several places of worship were opened in the capital, 
which were filled to overflowing. 

In the mean time, God was preparing for his own work one, 
who, for twenty years, has since directed the agency of the Bible 
Society in France, with consummate zeal and prudence. Mon¬ 
sieur de P. was not appointed as agent till 1833, and the account 
of his labours belongs to the second era of the society’s history. 
But you will like to know one or two instances of his early life. 

He was the son of a Catholic father and a Protestant mother, 
(the latter being descended from the persecuted Huguenots,) and 
was brought up a Catholic, as it had been arranged the sons should 
be. The whole family emigrated to Holland at the Hevolution, 
and the son thus became a pupil of the Jesuits, and was a second 
time baptized by the reverend fathers, with great pomp. They 
sought further refuge at Lausanne, and here the youth came 
under Protestant influence, and more especially under that of his 

26 ^ 



306 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


elder sister, who was a confirmed invalid, and passed her days 
extended on an arm-chair,—finding her whole consolation in the 
family Bible, which was from morning till night before her. 

Every day she called her brother to her side, for the purpose 
of speaking to him of her hopes and spiritual joys, with an unc¬ 
tion and a rapture which would have moved any heart. Several 
days before her death, feeling her end approaching, she spoke to 
her brother with more energy than ever. She read to him a 
number of the most forcible passages of Scripture, and besought 
him to give his heart to the Lord, while frequently she was heard, 
by persons passing her room, imploring the Lord, when alone, 
that her brother might become a servant of his word. 

And, oh I how this prayer of the dying was answered, let the 
whole history of colportage upon the continent of Europe bear 
witness! God has often answered such prayers, and he never 
withdraws from his work on earth the strength of an earnest soul, 
but he suffers that soul, in departing, to cast some seed into the 
mind of another, which shall spring up and bring forth fruit 
abundantly,^^ and thus his work goes on; and though all flesh 
is grass, and the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth,^^ still 

the word of the Lord endureth for ever.’^ 


AUSTRIA. 

During the lengthened period that Prince Metternich was 
prime minister, the Bible Society was not permitted to take any 
open and active measures, in furtherance of its object in this 
country, up to the year 1847. 

BELGIUM. 

In Belgium, a small dep6t of Bibles, only 1000 copies, were, 
in 1846, conflded to the care of a few Christian friends in Brus¬ 
sels; but even after twenty years there were some remaining, 
which, at that period, were freely given away. They might have 
deserved the name of dusty Bibles'': not one copy was to be 



BELGIUM—PRUSSIA. 


307 


found in any of the shops of Antwerp and Bruges. The friends 
of Bible circulation must here look to the second era of the so¬ 
ciety, for cheering and abundant success. 

As the work of the Bible Society in parts of Germany, Prussia, 
Poland, and Switzerland, has already been noticed, it is not 
necessary to say more than that, although (in the words of Br. 
Steinkopflf) there was only one Leander Yan Ess,^^ still many 
faithful men were, during all this period, labouring among the 
Roman Catholic as well as the Protestant population of these 
countries, and that vast numbers of copies of the Scripture were 
granted to the strong, personal desire of the people. Br. Pinker¬ 
ton, however, in his correspondence attached to the twenty-sixth 
Report, speaks of comparatively little being effected, because of 
the powerful opposition made by the priests. They take up the 
books, examine them, and exclaim, ^ These are Protestant books, 
good for nothing but for the fire !’ while, from the blind submis¬ 
sion of the people, they seldom fail to make it known at confession 
when a Testament has been given to them, and this generally 
leads to their being deprived of it.^^ 

In Italy, Spain, and Portugal, doubly barred countries against 
the entrance of Bivine truth,” little also was accomplished, or, 
indeed, directly attempted before the year 1835, except grants to 
prisoners of war from those regions, and some small circulation of 
Testaments in their colonial possessions. But we have not yet 
approached the vast empire of— 


RUSSIA, 

With its surface of more than half that of Europe, embracing 
about one-seventh of the whole land of the earth, and about one- 
thirteenth of its entire inhabitants;—Russia, with its spreading 
corn fields, its absolute monarchy, its mixed population, its state 
of serfdom, and its slowly but certainly extending power. 

You will ask. Was there a Bible Society in Russia? Yes. It 
began in the province of Finland, in 1812; and the British and 
Foreign Bible Society made it a donation of 550/., to which the 



308 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Emperor of Russia added 5000 roubles from his private purse. 
This, in the following year, gave rise to its noble sister Society of 
St. Petersburg, which, for fourteen years, exercised so powerful an 
influence for good over the extensive empire of the czar. During 
these fourteen years, it translated the Scriptures or parts of them 
into seventeen languages, in which they had not been previously 
known. It printed them in thirty languages, and circulated them 
in forty-five. 

In 1806, not one in a thousand of the people of Russia could 
read, and it was generally known a hundred versts off, where the 
treasure of a Bible was to be found. In ten years the Russian 
Bible Society issued more than 800,000 copies ! 

We will give you an interesting extract from the speech of 
Prince Galitzin, at the seventh anniversary of the Russian Bible 
Society: 

A most striking feature in the accounts of that vast field, in 
which the word of life is now sowing, is the indefatigable zeal 
exhibited in preparing versions of the Holy Scriptures: this is 
manifest in Russia. In the different governments, both near and 
remote,—in the desert, and in the village,—in snow-clad Siberia, 
and upon the mountains of Caucasus and Uralia,—are to be found 
lovers of the word of God, who, of their own accord, and without 
selfish views of gain, are engaged in the work uf translating the 
Gospels and other parts of the Bible into the various languages 
and dialects spoken by the tribes who inhabit Russia,—^people 
who never before even heard of this Divine word.’^ 

An imperial ukase, in 1813, decreed and authorized the estab¬ 
lishment of the Bible Society; but, alas ! in 1826, another ukase 
of another emperor appeared to suppress it. In the mean time it 
had circulated at the rate of one copy at least to every twentieth 
family in the wide empire. 

The most important benefit conferred on its own country by this 
institution, while it existed, was the bestowment of the New 
Testament, and the book of Psalms, and the first eight books of 
the Old Testament, in the modern Russ, on the poor serfs, who 
thereby obtained the knowledge of the wonderful works of God 



BIBLE IN RUSSIA. 


309 


iu tlieir own tongue. The numbers printed were 324,000. This 
seed of the kingdom seems buried; but the Lord can yet quicken 
it again, and cause it to spring up and bring forth fruit to the 
praise of the glory of his grace. A measure of patronage, we 
are thankful to say, is still extended by the czar to the different 
Bible Institutions established in the provinces of the Baltic, and 
security is insured to the agents labouring on the banks of the 
Black Sea and the Sea of Azoph. 

The letters of Dr. Pinkerton, and also of Mr. Paterson, during 
this period, witness to their labours in the northern kingdoms of 
Europe. Could all that they have detailed concerning the Book 
and its Story, in Bussia, in the times when sixteen wagon-loads 
of Bibles and Testaments were despatched in a month from the 
capital to different parts of the empire, it might move the heart 
“of the present emperor to pass a third ukase, decreeing that those 
times should return. 

The following incident may serve as a specimen, though it ought 
possibly to find a place among the records of the desire of the 
heathen to become possessed of the word of God: it took place 
in 1818. 

A member of the St. Petersburg committee sent a copy of a 
single Calmuc Gospel to a Buriat prince in Siberia, a vast district 
of Asiatic Russia, to see if his people could understand it. The 
prince replied, that they could not. It was the first specimen 
they had seen of Calmuc typography. A long while afterward, 
a letter brought the pleasing intelligence to St. Petersburg, that 
the Buriats had found the key, and could make out the sense of 
the Calmuc Gospel. His excellency Prince Galitzin then wrote 
to the Governor of Irkutsh, begging he would appoint two learned 
Buriats to come to St. Petersburg, and accommodate the version 
of the Calmuc Gospel to their native dialect. 

Two of their chiefs, persons of high family, and very intelli¬ 
gent and inquisitive, accordingly came, and occupied themselves 
with the translation of what they impressively called the beau¬ 
tiful sayings of Jesus and such was the immediate effect of their 
occupation on their minds, that when they turned to pray to their 



310 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


idols, as usual, they felt an internal disquietude, of which they 
had never before been conscious, and requested to he more per¬ 
fectly informed of the nature of the go&pel. 

Their letter to their prince, in Siberia, is very affecting: they 
say— 

“ By your kind endeavours, we have reached the city of St. 
Petersburg, where shines the brightness of the holy doctrine, and 
here we have seen and heard the sacred words of the most high 
and saving God. That we should ever see and hear such things, 
we never before had an idea. 

The word of God being so very clear, we cannot sufficiently 
admire it; and we feel that it is truth which may be relied upon. 
This vehicle of a reasonable faith, this pearl of a devout heart, al¬ 
though existing 1800 years upon earth, has not hitherto come to 
our Mongols and Buriats. 

When, by the grace of God, our people shall forsake their 
own faith, and receive the doctrine of Christ, they will, under ^ the 
light and easy yoke,^ adopt a good conversation and good manners. 
We are fully and firmly resolved to receive the doctrine of the 
saving God, Jesus Christ, although we are not yet acquainted with 
the manners and usages of his religion; and when we return home 
we shall find no teacher upon whose breast we could lean our 
head, neither any house of God;. yet after the conviction we have 
obtained of the truth of the word of God, we can no longer endure 
the want of it: we must abide by this doctrine. 

We hope that our gracious sovereign, when he shall hear that 
his subjects on the outermost borders of his kingdom have adopted 
Christianity, will favour us with wise and worthy teachers.^’ 

It must be mentioned, that what is called a Protestant Bible 
Society is still existing in Bussia, and confirmed by the emperor. 
This was formed, in 1828, to supply the Protestants in Bussia 
with the Holy Scriptures. 

TURKEY, EUROPEAN AND ASIATIC. 

The first circumstance that attracted attention to this country 
was an application from Edinburgh, in 1807, to assist in procuring 



TURKEY, EUROPEAN AND ASIATIC. 


311 


Arabic types and paper, for printing the New Testament in Turk¬ 
ish. The importance of this undertaking was felt from the 
knowledge of the fact, that Turkish was spoken throughout the 
whole of that empire, and in the greater part of Persia, besides 
being the written language understood by all the numerous Tartar 
tribes. The request was readily complied with, and the work 
completed in 1813. 

Two years afterward, the committee became aware of the 
existence of the very valuable manuscript of the Turkish Bible 
written by Ali Bey, and lying in the museum at Leyden. The 
history of this manuscript and of its revision is as follows: 

Ali Bey was born in Poland, stolen while a youth by the 
Tartars, and sold as a slave in Constantinople. He spent twenty 
years in the seraglio, became first dragoman or translator to Mo¬ 
hammed ly., and was said to understand seventeen languages. 

At the suggestion of the Dutch ambassador, Ali Bey translated 
the entire Scriptures into Turkish. The study of the sacred 
volume was not without effect on the translator. It is recorded, 
that he entertained thoughts of turning to the profession of: Chri^ 
tianity, and that death only prevented the accomplishmeift of his 
design. When this version was ready for the press, the Dutch 
ambassador sent it to Leyden to be printed; but it was deposited 
in the archives of the university, among other oriental manuscripts, 
and there it lay for a century and a half, apparently unnoticed. 

When its existence became known to the British and Foreign 
Bible Society, they recommended it to the attention of Dr. Pinker¬ 
ton ; and he, having satisfied himself that it was a worthy trans¬ 
lation, placed it in the hands of the Baron Yon Diez, a Turkish 
scholar of great eminence, who with pious delight undertook to 
revise it. The baron says, wish with all my heart that the 
work may be accomplished for the glory of God, and the good of 
my fellow-men. Only one anxious thought sometimes enters my 
mind: I am sixty-three years of age; I shall pray God to pro¬ 
long my life till this work be completed; for, should it please 
him to call me away in the midst of the undertaking, I certainly 
know not who would carry it on after my death. 



312 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


The venerable senator, however, died when he had completed 
but four books of the Pentateuch, and not a little anxiety was 
felt about providing a suitable successor^ but, as it was truly 
observed by Lord Teignmouth, The Bible Society has never 
wanted means or instruments for the furtherance of its object^ 
whenever they were required^ The necessary editor was unex¬ 
pectedly found in Professor Kieffer, the professor of oriental lan¬ 
guages at Paris. The Testament was presented in a printed form 
at the Bible meeting at Paris, in 1819; but it was not until 
1828, that the entire Turkish Bible, with all its corrections, was 
completed at press, of which edition 5000 copies of the Bible, 
and 7000 of the New Testament alone, have been issued by the 
British and Foreign Bible Society. 

Dr. Pinkerton visited Constantinople in 1819. He gives an 
account, in his letter attached to the sixteenth Beport, of a con¬ 
versation he had with the venerable Paul, the Armenian patriarch 
of Constantinople. A vast Armenian population lies in and 
around the city, estimated at upward of 100,000 souls; and the 
patriarch undertook the dissemination of the Scriptures among 
them, and also in Asia Minor. The conversation was in Turkish, 
which is the common language of the Armenian population, and 
the only one properly understood by all ranks. 

Dr. Pinkerton also conversed with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, 
and secured his promise to circulate the Scriptures among the 
pilgrims who annually visit the holy sepulchre, said to be upward 
of 2000 of the G-reek communion alone; and as these resort thither 
from every quarter of the East, an excellent opportunity occurs 
to sow the word through their means. The patriarch promised 
to give in charge, to one of the monks who attended at the holy 
sepulchre, a number of New Testaments, in different languages, 
for distribution. 

There were allotted for this purpose 1000 Modern Greek, 500 
Ancient Greek, and 500 Arabic Testaments, without money and 
without price, for the poor pilgrims assembling round “the place 
where the Lord lay.'' 

In 1820, Mr. Benjamin Barker, the brother of the consul at 



TURKISH INDOLENCE. 


313 


Aleppo, a gentleman whose knowledge of the countiy’and the 
languages of Syria made the acquisition of his services very 
desirable, became the agent of the society, and still continues to 
be so. 

IMr. Barker at once commenced his work. Some Armenian, 
Turkish, and Greek Scriptures were readily bought up, and many 
of the Armenian copies found their way to Diarbekir. The result 
of this distribution lay a long time concealed^ but the success 
which has since attended the labours of the American missionaries 
in the East, especially among the Armenians, is greatly accounted 
for by the circulation of the Scriptures which took place at this 
period. 

In forming an idea of Turkey in Europe, a country which com¬ 
prehends a space of 200,000 square miles, and a population of 
15,000,000, we have to think of the Turks as its despotic masters, 
who, while they treat the Armenians, Jews, and Greeks within 
their territories very scornfully, yet form themselves but a minority 
in their own country. There is said to be so little strength in 
the Turkish empire itself, that it would probably have been de¬ 
stroyed long ere this, but for the interference and support of 
other powers. 

Its great rival is Russia, from whose encroachments it has, 
however, a sort of natural shelter in the Balkan range of moun¬ 
tains, which the Turks call ^^Emineh Bagh,’^ meaning “the 
mountains that serve as a defence. 

The indolent repose of the Turkish character is so capitally 
given by Mr. Layard, the discoverer of Nineveh, at the close of 
his last book, that we must transcribe a portion of a letter, he 
says he has in his possession, from a Turkish cadi, in reply to 
some inquiries concerning the commerce, population, and remains 
of antiquity, of an ancient city in which he dwelt:— 

“The thing you ask of me is both difficult and useless. 
Although I have passed all my days in this place, I have neither 
counted the houses nor have I inquired into the number of the 
inhabitants; and as to what one person loads on his mules, or 

another stows away in the bottom of his ship, that is no business 

27 

% 



314 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


of mine. But, above all, as to the previous history of this city! 
Allah only knows the amount of dirt and confusion that the infi¬ 
dels may have eaten before the coming of the sword of Islam!— 
it were unprofitable for us to inquire into it. 

‘^Oh, my soul! oh, my lamb ! seek not after the things which 
concern thee not: go in peace! After the fashion of thy people, 
thou hast wandered from one place to another, until thou art happy 
and content in none. We (praise be to Allah!) were born here, 
and never desire to quit. Is it possible, then, that the idea of a 
general intercourse between mankind should make any impression 
on our understandings ? Allah forbid ! 

^•Listen, oh, my son! There is no wisdom equal to the belief 
in God. Thou art learned in the things that I care not for. I 
praise God, that I seek not that which I require not. Thine, the 
meek in spirit,—Imaum Ali Zade.’^ 

Besides these lazy lords of the soil, there are in Turkey more 
gipsies than in any other country of Europe, vast numbers, as we 
have seen, of Armenian merchants, and great numbers of Jews. 

In 1828, Professor Kieffer finished his most careful revision 
of the Turkish Bible for all these mixed races. He corrected 
the sheets six times, as they passed through the press. 

In 1826, Mr. Barker speaks of most of the Armenians at 
Aleppo, and nearly all the servants, knowing how to read, though 
in general very poor; and in 1827, he says, that, at'Smyrna, 
French ofiScers and other Homan Catholics daily call for Bibles 
and Testaments, contrary to the express command of Home not 
to do so; yet,’^ he adds, ‘^the difficulty of supplying such vast 
tracts of country with the word of God can scarcely be conceived 
by an Englishman not acquainted with these barbarous regions. 
It appears an easy task, perhaps, to those who are only familiar 
with their own favoured country, where thousands are ready to 
exert their faculties in aiding the circulation of the Sacred Scrip¬ 
tures; but an agent of the Bible Society, here, must do almost 
all his work himself, unless he can engage a few friends, as a 
favour, to render him a little help.^’ ‘ 

In all his transactions, also, the Bible agent must keep a vigi- 



TOILSOME LABOURS. 


315 


lant eye over his own conduct, so that he does not, by some im¬ 
prudent step, excite the feelings of the authorities against him. 
^‘1 could, likewise,'^ says Mr. Barker, ^^give a long account of 
the miseries experienced in travelling here. Under the scorching 
rays of an eastern sun, the traveller is deprived oftentimes of 
common food and water. He arrives late at night at a dirty 
coffee-house, occupied already by a number of savage and fanatical 
Turks; he carries with him the piece of carpet which forms his 
only bed, and all night is attacked by hosts of vermin. To this 
may be added the perils of the journey. You may often meet 
with disbanded soldiers, who scruple not to rob you and take 
away your life,—the fording of rivers and torrents,—the plague,— 
unhealthy climes,—and the sad prospect, should you fall ill, of 
being without medical advice or attendance, as was the case with 
poor Henry Martyn at Tocat.^^ All these are incidents in the 
life of a foreign Bible agent in such places as the chain of Taurus, 
or on the skirts of the desert of Arabia,—incidents which make 
the patient toil of an English Bible collector seem light and easy. 
To these may be added, such separations from home and its feli¬ 
cities as are recorded in Dr. Pinkerton’s letters from St. Peters¬ 
burg, in 1820: After travelling four days and nights from 
Moscow, I reached my home yesterday, and to my great joy 
found my beloved wife and three children in good health. I 
leave the fathers in your committee to judge, for they are best 
capable of doing so, of our gratitude to our heavenly Father for 
this safe meeting, after a separation of twenty long months. What 
changes had taken place even in my own family during that 
period!—changes so numerous and great, and many of them so 
distressing, that I was alternately roused to every feeling of re¬ 
gret, of sympathy, of thankfulness, and of praise, of which my 
heart was capable! How often had I looked death in the face 
during this long interval! [He had once slept on a mattress 
infected with the plague.] How many hundred horses have 
borne me along my course I Not fewer than eleven different 
vessels have carried me from continent to continent, and from 
isle to isle, during the last twelve months, frequently in distress 



316 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


and sickness, but still preserved to praise the Redeemer of men, 
who suffered not a hair of my head to be touched by the hand of 
violence, nor a bone of my body to be broken by any unfortunate 
accident. 

A foreign Bible agent needs a heart warmly devoted to his 
work, but it is work that recompenses him for every privation. 
^‘New opportunities are constantly occurring here,'^ says Mr. 
Barker in 1827, for a wider circulation of the word of Grod; 
and should we be blessed with tranquillity, we shall hail the op¬ 
portunity of beginning to diffuse Christian knowledge even among 
the Turks.’’ 

Turkey in Asia comprises 450,000 square miles, but only a 
population of 10,000,000, including Kurds and Bedouin Arabs,— 
the old, unchanged, wild men of the desert, with whom we began 
the Story of the Book, and including alike Mesopotamia and 
Palestine, the cradle lands of Judaism and Christianity; there¬ 
fore, Turkey in Asia is the most interesting country in the 
world,— 

“ Over whose acres walk’d those blessed feet, 

Which eighteen hundred years ago were nail’d 
For our advantage on the bitter cross.” 

It is also the seat of the old Assyrian and Babylonian empires. 

Could England ever do too much to repay to this land the 
seeds of blessing which she has received from it ? 

GREECE, s 

The work of the Bible Society in Greece was principally 
carried on from Malta, by its devoted friends and agents, the 
Rev. W. Jowett, Dr. Naudi, Rev. H. D. Leeves, and Mr. 
Lowndes. Mr. Jowett wrote thus, while Burckhardt was yet 
alive, in 1819: “We reap now, in the successes of our noble 
coadjutor, in the formation of the Smyrna Bible Society, and in 
the pledges of co-operation given us in various parts of Asia 
Minor and Greece, an ample reward of our first year’s pleasing 
toil. Ought we not to be stimulated and encouraged to redouble 
our labours in this holy work ? Surrounded hy three continents^ 



SOUTH AMERICA. 


317 


in each, of which there exist such multitudes of souls wholly desti¬ 
tute of the word of life, let us forget even our past successes, and 
press forward in the work of faith, hope, and charity!” 

SOUTH AMERICA. 

We shall now turn to this vast region, and its Catholic coun¬ 
tries. We can only name them : Brazil, colonized by Portugal; 
Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, and La Plata, colonies of Spain. 
Mexico, in North America, and Cuba, an island of the West 
Indies, were also colonized by Spain. It is too wide a field to 
enter upon, more than to notice it as an example of a country, 
where religion, once known, has become extinct, because the Bible 
was withheld from it by those who nominally converted it to the 
faith. The people of South America and Japan have, since tfieir 
so-called conversion, been sunk in the darkest superstition. 

The light was put under a bushel by the men who introduced 
it into the house, and then the light itself, such as it was, 
perished.^^** 

In the eighteenth Report of the society is the following notice:— 

The Bible has found a new and unexpected inlet into an unfre¬ 
quented region of South America. A chieftain of Patagonia has 
been discovered in possession of a New Testament, printed by the 
British and Foreign Bible Society. He procured it at Buenos 
Ayres, whither he went to trade, and thence conveyed it to his 
home, that he might explain its contents to his fellow countrymen. 

^^A native of Bio Negro was also so pleased by a copy of the 
New Testament, that he requested more from Buenos Ayres. In 
the region of Bio de la Plata and Chili, at Bio de Janeiro and 
Pernambuco, the Spanish and Portuguese Scriptures are sought 
with eagerness, and received with gratitude.^^ 

A small auxiliary had been formed at Buenos Ayres, and sup¬ 
plies of the Scriptures transmitted to the Brazils, Chili, and 
Peru, for the labourers in the salt mines at Bona Vista, who, 
seatiug themselves in the shade, while resting frpm their work at 


“ Bible of Many Tongues,” published by the Tract Society. 
27 -^ 




318 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


noon, iniffht often be seen reading the New Testament most de- 
voutly to one another; but, as this is also America’s own Bible 
and mission field, we must leave its detail, with the exception of 
a quotation from the letter of an agent of the American Society, 
and one of Dr. Thomson’s letters, the agent for some years of 
our own society. 

The American agent says: “ What are these people ?—beings 
profe.'=sedly Christian, baptized in the name of the Trinity, and 
yet almost entirely without the Bible! By the etforts of this 
society and that of England, they have, it is true, within a few 
years received seven or eight thousand copies of this holy Book, 
but, ‘ what are these among so many ?’—scarcely a single copy to 
2000 souls! Throughout the long road from Buenos Ayres to 
Chili, except a very few in Mendoza, not a solitai-y copy of the 
Book of God was found; and I more than once presented copies 
to aged priests, tottering over the grave, icho told me they had 
never before seen it in their native tongue. In the interior of the 
country, some told me that they never before were aware that 
the Scriptures existed in their own language. Yet the Bible is 
here no longer excluded by royal mandates and by papal bulls. 
The new governments are not only willing, but anxious, that the 
Scriptures should have a general circulation. The work here is 
more than sufficient for the united energies of both the American 
and British and Foreign Bible Societies.” 

In anticipating the arrival of some supplies from Vera Cruz, 
Dr. Thomson writes : Surely it is a new thing in this land, to 
see twenty-four mules, loaded with Bibles and Testaments, mak¬ 
ing their way up the mountains and through the woods into the 
interior!” This active agent gives a most interesting account 
of his favourable reception in a convent at Queretaro, where eveji 
some friars had no objection to receive the lamp for their feet in 
this dark world. They, however, greatly objected, as the people 
do in most Boman Catholic countries, to the omission of the 
Apocrypha. Dr. Thomson distributed, during his journey of 
two years, 4235 copies. He had to contend with great difficul¬ 
ties The authorities of the church first countenanced his ob- 



SOUTH AMERICA. 


319 


jectsj but wben they found the Bible Society’s Bibles without 
note, comment, or apocryphal books, their benevolent feelings 
were thoroughly changed, and an edict was issued prohibiting the 
Scriptures, and ordering those received to be given up. 

In Boman Catholic countries, this constitutes a great hinderance 
to the society’s operations up to the present day. They could 
distribute many more copies if the different books which com¬ 
pose the Scriptures were intermixed and bound up with the apo¬ 
cryphal books, as in the Boman Catholic Bibles ; but the society 
cannot do this. It is their fundamental principle to circulate 
the pure word of God, whole and alone. In 1826, they made 
fresh and distinct resolutions to abide by this fundamental prin¬ 
ciple ; and, further, not to make any more grants to any Bible 
Society circulating the Apocrypha, which necessarily closed the 
connection between the British and Foreign Bible Society and 
many of the Bible Societies on the continent. 

To those who read the Bible,, the evidence is obvious, that the 
apocryphal books are of mere human composition; but the pre¬ 
judice in their favour abroad, and among those who have been 
educated as Boman Catholics, would seem to be irresistible ] and 
a suspicion arises in their minds, which the priests foster, that 
our Bibles are not -perfect, and that, if we have kept back some 
books, we have perhaps also altered those we have printed. 
England can only say, ‘‘ May God defend the right!” and in the 
mean time we must adhere to the principle of the old Vaudois 
Church— The Bible —whole and alone. 

THE MOHAMMEDAN COUNTRIES. 

/ And now we approach the fourth division of the world’s inha¬ 
bitants,—the Mohammedan countries. It is supposed that there 
are eight millions of Mohammedans in Europe. The Arabs, the 
Turks, and the Tartars have all been, for more than a thousand 
years, the followers of a false prophet,” who w'rote a parody 
upon the Bible, called “ The Koran.” There is no society for 
circulating the Koran : the believers in it hide it from the pollu¬ 
ting touch of the Christian; but we have given them our Bible, 



320 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


in their own tongue; and, as Wiclif said to Courtenay,—some 
day truth shall prevail.’^ 

It is almost impossible to calculate with any degree of accuracy 
the number of people by whom Arabic is spoken. Arabia itself 
may have twelve millions of inhabitants; but Arabic is also 
spoken in Syria, Mesopotamia, in part of Persia, on the Malabar 
and Coromandel coasts, in Egypt, in Nubia, and in Barbary. 

Arabic is also extensively used, as the language of religion and 
commerce, in Western, Eastern, and Central Africa; and before 
the missionaries had reduced some of the African dialects to 
writing, Arabic was the only written language known to the na¬ 
tives of that vast continent. 

Arabic, as the language of the Koran, is venerated and studied, 
from the western confines of Spain and Africa to the Philippine 
Islands, over 130 degrees of latitude, and from the tropic of 
Capricorn to Tartary, over seventy degrees of longitude.* 

Henry Martyn felt all this when he undertook his new version 
of the Arabic Testament. We will begin to preach,^^ said that 
devoted missionary, ^Ho Arabia, Syria, Persia, Tartary, part of 
India and China, half of Africa, all the seacoast of the Mediter¬ 
ranean and Turkey, and one tongue shall suffice for them all” 

It was in Arabia that the great apostle ofi the Gentiles com¬ 
menced his ministry: When it pleased God, who called me by 
his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him 
among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and 
blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem, but I went into Arabia.^^ 
Gal. i. 15-17. 

Whatever seed the apostle sowed there, the tares have since 
sprung up and choked it. 

From the year 1811, the Bible Society attempted to -present 
versions of the Scriptures in Arabic, reprinted from various pre¬ 
vious editions; but much prejudice existing against them among 
the Mohammedans, the need of an improved translation, so long 
and deeply felt by the Eastern churches, has at length been met 


Butler’s ‘‘Horae Biblicae.’ 




THE MOHAMMEDAN COUNTRIES. 


321 


by tbe Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. This was 
begun in 1839, and has been executed at Malta by Mr. Fares, 
one of the most learned Arabic scholars of the East. 

A version of the New Testament, in Arabic, consisting of 
10,000 copies, was published by the above-mentioned society, in 
1727. The copies of this edition are now extremely rare, for 
none of them were sold in Europe. Two, however, are preserved 
in Cambridge : the greater part were sent to Russia, for distribu¬ 
tion in Mohammedan countries. It must have been some of 
those Testaments which received from an Arab the following 
welcome :—‘‘ He received them almost in a transport of joy, 
kissed them, and then kissed me for their sake. He said that 
the persons who would read them should always wash their hands 
three times before they opened those books.’’ 

A version of the New Testament, in modern Arabic, was 
printed at Calcutta, in 1816, designed principally for the learned 
and fastidious Mohammedans in all parts of the world, who, it 
was thought, might have been repelled from the study of Scrip¬ 
ture by the antiquated style of former versions. This translation 
was made by a learned Arabian scholar, the unhappy Sabat. 
Henry Martyn was deeply interested in Sabat, and the produc¬ 
tion of his version; but he did not live to see its completion. A 
second edition was printed in London, by the Bible Society, in 
1825, and a third in Calcutta, in the following year. 

This version, though not considered perfect where the lan¬ 
guage is spoken, is, by various testimonies, silently accomplishing 
the purposes of God. In Western Africa, the natives, on first 
receiving the copies sent them by the Bible Society, “were 
astonished that a white man should have written this book in 
their favourite language.” In the eleventh Report it is stated, 
that the ready reception of some Arabic Bibles at Yongroo, in 
Western Africa, by the Mohammedans, encourages a hope that 
they may be more extensively circulated, and has produced an 
application for a further supply. The Rev. G. Nylander says: 

“ I presented an Arabic Bible to the King of Bullbm, saying, 

^ This is the Book which makes man wise and good : it is God’p 



322 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


word. He speaks to us in this Book by Moses, the prophets and 
apostles, and by his Son Jesus Christ.^ The king recommended 
to strangers this ^white man’s book.’ Some time afterward, I 
went to see him, and found about twenty Mohammedans sitting 
together in deep conversation, and an aged Mohammedan teacher 
in the midst of them reading the Bible. This teacher visited me 
himself, and likewise begged for a Bible, saying, ^When I go 
home, I shall read this book to all my people.’ ” 

The Bev. William Jowett wrote an interesting letter to the 
committee of the Malta Bible Society, in June, 1819, on his 
voyage up the Nile. He says:— 

On my arrival at Esne, the last bishopric southward in Egypt, 
I first opened my small but invaluable treasure of Bibles. I 
waited on the bishop, gave him a copy of the Arabic Bible, and 
begged him to r^ommend it among his people. The price I 
fixed was twenty piastres, or 10s. English, which was quite a re¬ 
duced price, for the people are so poor, and money is so scarce in 
this country. There was scarcely any need of soliciting the 
bishop’s recommendation, for the people, having seen the book 
and witnessed the pleasure with which he received the present, 
came immediately to buy, and I could have disposed of my whole 
stock, had I not had to think of other towns besides theirs. I 
could only spare them three, and it was really painful to see the 
eagerness with which one after another came to the boat to ask 
if I could not let them have one copy more : yet I was obliged to 
think of the other churches. 

Stopping at Edfu, I learned that this was the last town where 
Christians (of the Coptic Church) were to be found. They were 
very miserable and poor, and, alas ! none of them could read. It 
is wonderful how, under such circumstances, even the profession 
of Christianity is kept up. Yet some of these poor people show 
their attachment to their religion, by setting otf on the Thursday 
night, to be present at vespers on Saturday evening, and return 
on the IMonday every week—a reproach to many in Christian 
countries, who live within half an hour’s walk of a place of wor¬ 
ship, and yet seldom attend. 



THE MOHAMMEDAN COUNTRIES. 


323 


“ At Essonan, though I found persons able to read, yet I found 
no Christians. Here, and far higher up in Nubia, are numerous 
relics of churches and convents, and other marks which prove 
how far Christianity once extended in these countries. It will be 
the blessed work of Bible Societies to renew them.” 

Afterward, Mr. Jowett passed a week at Thebes, commencing 
the study of the Ethiopic, in reference to the Amharic version, 
under the shade of trees, and amid those majestic ruins. He 
left one Arabic Bible at Luxor, not with the priest, to be shut up 
in the church, but with a clerk, called Mallem Jacob, whose 
nephew of twelve years of age could read it,—a boy who loved 
to sit and read by himself; and he trusts that the Bible was fitly 
bestowed. 

At Kemner, a town on the eastern bank, a Copt, on seeing the 
Arabic Bible, recognised it as the same that he had bought of a 
Jew in Cairo. He offered Mr. Jowett fifty instead of twenty 
piastres for it ) but this the missionary refused. Two more copies 
were sent him to sell, and he said the people snatched them up 
so quickly,that he had not one left for himself. He was next 
morning favoured with two more copies, as the town was a grand 
thoroughfare for Mohammedan pilgrims. 

The Bishop of -Minie purchased the five remaining Arabic 
Bibles j and thus closes the account of the careful dispersion of 
this precious seed, being twenty-five sold in Upper Egypt, and 
fifty-five in Cairo. On his return to Cairo, Mr. Jowett was imme¬ 
diately asked if had any more to dispose of.* Further details 
are equally inviting. 

The number of Arabs in Egypt alone is estimated at from 
two-and-a-half to four millions. Moorish Arabic, into which 
dialect a very recent translation of the Scriptures had been made, 
is spoken by ten millions of people in Morocco, and by thirty 
millions in that and the adjacent regions, all Mohammedans, and 
inaccessible to the distribution of the Scriptures.’^ 

Abdallah, an xVrabian of noble birth, was converted from Is- 


See Report, 1820. 





324 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY, 


lamism by the simple perusal of the Bible. When his conversion 
became known, Abdallah, to escape the vengeance of his country¬ 
men, fled from Cabul in disguise, but was met and recognised at 
Bokhara by Sabat, the translator before mentioned. Abdallah, 
perceiving his danger, threw himself at the feet of his friend, 
and besought him, by all the ties of their former intimacy, to save 
his life. “But,^’ said Sabat, ^^Ihad no jpitrj. I delivered him 
up to Morad Shah, king of Bokhara."” 

Abdallah was offered his life if he would abjure Christ; but he 
refused. Then one of his hands was cut off; and a physician, 
by command of the king, offered to heal the wound if he would 
recant. He made no answer,” said Sabat, “ but looked up 
steadfastly toward heaven, like Stephen the first martyr, his eyes 
streaming with tears. He did not look with anger toward me ; he 
looked at me, but it was with a countenance of forgiveness. His 
other hand was then cut off; but,” continued Sabat, he never 
changed, he never changed ! And when he bowed his head to 
receive the blow of death, all Bokhara seemed to say. What new 
thing is this ?” Sabat had indulged the hope that Abdallah would 
recant when offered his life; but when he saw that his friend was 
dead, he gave himself up to grief and remorse. He himself 
twice professed, and twice abjured Christianity. 

HEATHEN COUNTRIES. 

And now we must turn, at last, to the heathen or pagan coun¬ 
tries,—the fifth division of the world’s population, and by far its 
largest portion,—to China, with its 350,000,000 ! Japan, with its 
25,000,000 ! India, with its 130,000,000! the greater part of 
Africa, Australia, and Polynesia;—and what has the Bible Society 
begun to do for these ? 

You must perceive, that the first thing it had to do for them 
all was, to procure such a Bible as they could read, or to assist 
and encourage those who were translating it. We will tell you 
what various missionaries said about their own work of translation. 

Those who have never attempted to translate from one language 



HEATHEN COUNTRIES. 


325 


into another, or whose efforts have been limited to rendering a 
Latin or French fable into English, can form but an imperfect idea 
of the difficulties to be surmounted in making a version of the 
Holy Scriptures in the language of an idolatrous people. Of a 
fable, or a story, it would be sufficient to give the general sense. 
The narrative might be presented in an entirely new dress, and 
yet be equally acceptable; but no such license may be allowed in 
the translation of the word of God! In this case, the minutest 
shades of thought must be transferred, if possible, from the 
original. 

But how is this to be accomplished in the language of a people 
who have had, up to that time, no ideas conformable to the sub¬ 
jects of which the Bible speaks, and who have not, therefore, of 
course, any words to express such ideas ? 

How would you speak of holiness^ for instance, to a man who 
has no conception of holiness, or whose only notion respecting it 
is that of having recently bathed in a sacred stream ? How would 
you express the Christian doctrine of regeneration to a man who 
expects to be born again, either in the form of an insect or of a 
loathsome reptile, as a punishment for his sins; or in the form of 
a prince or noble, in reward for his good actions ? It is only as 
the ideas and experience of any two nations coincide, that the 
words of their languages will correspond. 

The Bev. J. Campbell, missionary to South Africa, wished to 
tell a party of chiefs that he had made a three months’ voyage 
from England, and had since travelled six weeks in his wagon, 
from Cape Town, to visit them. He had no difficulty in relating 
to them the latter fact, for they saw his wagon, and the oxen that 
had drawn it; but how was he to speak of the sea and ships to 
men to whom ships and the sea were unknown ? He was obliged 
to impress into his service what ideas they had. He said that 
before he travelled six weeks in the wagon, he had to cross a large 
pond,—so large, that it took him three moons to come over, which 
he did in a house built in a large bowl, which had-wings; that 
there were many men with him in the house, who spread out the 
wings to catch the wind, all day and all night, while others guided 

28 



326 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


the great bowl. You will not be surprised, when we add, that be 
saw one of tbe chiefs whispering to another, and overheard the 
words, he thinks we are such fools as to believe him.^^ Yet 
this singular account of a voyage across the Atlantic came as near 
to the truth as the language of that people admitted. 

No such/ree translation as this could be allowed in a version 
of the Bible. In the sacred writings, holy men of God spake 
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.^^ A translator of the 
Scriptures is therefore bound to present their thoughts in their 
own phraseology, as far as the idiom of two different languages 
will allow. 

The spirit of these remarks is contained in letters from two 
missionaries, Mr. Swan and Mr. Stallybrass, who went to Siberia, 
and translated the Old Testament into the language of those 
Buriat Mongolians, of whose desire for the Scriptures, in 1818, 
you recently read. These letters are dated 1833. They say 
something about the style or dialect of their version,—that there 
might be three styles or dialects, among which the translation of 
the Buriat Bible takes the middle place. One would be a vulgar 
colloquial style for the people; another, the style for the court, or 
for learned men; the third, a letter-writing and business style, or, 
perhaps, something rather above that, so as to place the subject 
within the reach of any competently-instructed person. The latter 
style they adopted for the Bible. 

Other difl&culties arose in translating into the language of idola¬ 
ters : a word must be found for God j to them, the unknown 
God.^^ In the Buriat translation, the missionaries used the word 

Burchan” as the least exceptionable term they could employ. 
It is the word used by the Buriats for the true God of Christians, 
when they speak of him, and it conveyed an idea to their minds 
of a Being above their idols. 

Then, what rule should they lay down for themselves as to the 
rendering of words expressive of weights, measures, and coins ? 
Should these be translated by the nearest weight, measure, or 
coin used in the country, or should the name of the Roman weight 
or coin be retained untranslated ? 



MODE OF TRANSLATING. 


327 


Points like these being agreed upon, the translators, together 
or separately, took their Hebrew and Greek Bibles, and read over 
the passage to be translated, very carefully, in the originals. In 
this case they also consulted Chaldee. Then, with the help of the 
English Bible, and such other modern versions as they were able 
to read, comparing them carefully with such aid from the learned 
as they may have had at hand, they possessed themselves of the 
exact sense of the sacred writers, and proceeded to express the 
meaning, as nearly as possible, in the new language. 

Translators sometimes make a list containing every word they 
have translated, the rendering given to it, and the passage where 
it is found j so that a concordance of the Scriptures is formed as 
they proceed. This renders their work uniform. It insures that 
forms of expression, frequently occurring in the original, shall be 
repeated precisely in the same terms in the new version. 

Afterward, all is revised again and again, in this case with the 
assistance of one of the most learned and cpmpetent of the Buriats, 
(generally a lama or priest;) ^^and with him,’^ says Mr. Swan, 
we went over the whole, verse by verse, and sentence by sentence, 
attending particularly to the idiom, and to the use of appropriate 
terms for things not familiarly known. 

A fair copy of the manuscript, thus revised and corrected, 
was then made, and sent to our fellow-labourers, who had copies 
taken for themselves, that they might examine and make remarks 
at their leisure, and have them at hand for reference. Some parts 
of our manuscripts have thus undergone repeated inspection and 
alteration, and we consider the final corrections not yet made. I 
shall again revise my portion immediately on my return to Siberia.^^ 
This letter is dated 1834. 

The same protracted process has been going on all over the 
world. Morrison, in China; Carey and his learned colleagues, in 
India; Williams, in the South Sea Islands; and Mofiat, in South 
Africa, have all, by the labour of many years, been creating the 
material for the spiritual treasury of the Bible Society, which it 
now scatters forth with a munificent and liberal hand. The men 
are almost all dead, but their work shall never die. 



328 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Incidental notice has already been taken of the difficulty attend¬ 
ing Dr. Morrison’s work in China; and of the Indian translations 
we must further speak, in describing the country itself. The 
following is the testimony, on the same subject, of the missionary 
AVilliams on the occasion of presenting a copy of the Grospel of 
Matthew, in the language of Rarotonga, to Lord Bexley, at the 
thirty-first anniversary of the Bible Society. He said,— 

“ I feel great pleasure in presenting to your lordship the first 
sheets of the Scriptures ever printed in England, in a language 
of the South Sea Islands. 

V The work of translation has been attended with very many 
hinderances. When the missionaries first went there, the people 
had no written language, no letters, no medium of intercourse, no 
hieroglyphic signs among them, and the art of communicating 
with persons at a distance, by means of writing, was a great 
mystery to them. King Pomare was the first person who learned 
to write; and when it was spread abroad that he could talk with 
the missionaries at a distance, by means of a few marks upon a 
piece of paper, the people came from all parts to be eye-witnesses 
of the wonderful deed. 

Our own translation has been effected with all the precaution 
that could be exercised, in order to have a version as correct as 
possible. The work was divided among the different missionaries, 
according to their knowledge of the language. Each took his 
portion to translate, which, when accomplished, was sent round 
to all the others, with a request that they would criticise and re¬ 
mark freely upon it. It was then returned to the translator, who 
corrected his work, carefully considering all the remarks that had 
been made. The translation was then further circulated among 
the people, and the chiefs and more intelligent natives were en¬ 
couraged to make their strictures also. Some of their remarks 
were of very great value to us.” 

The following is a specimen of the Rarotonga version alluded 
to; John i. 1-5 :— 

I vai ana te Logo i muatangana, i te Atua ra oki te Logo, e ko te Atua oki 
to Logo. 2 I te Atua ra oki aia i muatangana. 3 Nana i anga to au mea katoa- 



RAROTONGA AND SECHUANA VERSIONS. 


329 


toa, kare ua aia i ngere i tetai mea i angaia ra-. 4 Tei roto iaia to ora, e taua 
ora ra, to to tangata ia inarama. 5 I kaka mai ana to marama ki to poiri, kare 
rA to te poiri i ariki adu. 

The same martyr-missionary adds : It will he understood, that 
a people of such barbarous character as those among whom we 
have been labouring, had no names for many of the animals men¬ 
tioned in Scripture. They never saw a horse till we introduced 
that animal to the islands; they had no sheep or cattle of any 
kind; and in many islands they had never seen any animals but 
rafs, which were very numerous. In other islands they had 
in great abundance, and they called the horse ^ the prg that carries 
the man.^ In translating the Scripture, we had to supply names 
for these unknown animals; and for many other things, which 
they had not, we borrowed a word from the English language. In 
the Polynesian dialects, a vowel intervenes between every two 
consonants. This rule made it impossible to transfer the word 
/mrse, and, besides, the letter s is unknown in their language. In 
this case we went to the Greek, and found the word hippos ,—we 
rejected thep and the s, and constructed the word hipo, a word 
which any native can speak, and any learned man might under¬ 
stand. Such a word as baptism we left untranslated.^^ 

Mr. Moffat’s description of the difl&culty of acquiring the 
Bechuana tongue, and the circumstances in which it was ac¬ 
quired, will cause you to look with reverence on the sheets of a 
Sechuana Bible. The following is a specimen of that version; 
John i. 1—5:— 

LEHUKtr le le le mo tsimologon, mi Lehuku le le na le Morimo, mi Luhuku 
0 le le Morimo. 2 Ye, le le na le Morimo mo tsimologon. 3 Lilo cotie li tsa 
rihoa ka yeona, mi ga goa rihoa sepe sa tse li rihiloen, ha e si ka yeona. 
4 Botselo bo le bo le mo go yeona; mi botselo e le le leseri ya bathu. 5 Mi 
leseri ya phatsima mo hihin; mi lehihi le si ka ya le cula. 

^^Often,^^ says Mr. Moffat, ^^have we all met together to read 
the word of God,—that never-failing source of comfort; and, 
contented with being only the pioneers, have poured out our 
souls in prayer for the perishing heathen around. The acquisi¬ 
tion of the language was an object of the first importance, and 
this had to be accomplished under the most unfavourable circum- 



330 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


stances, as there was neither time nor place of retirement for 
study, and no interpreter worthy the name. 

few, and but few, words were collected, and these very in¬ 
correctly. It was something like groping in the dark, and many 
were the blunders that I made. After being compelled to attend 
to every species of manual, and frequently menial, labour for the 
whole day, working under a burning sun, standing in the saw-pit, 
labouring at the anvil, treading clay, or cleaning out a water- 
ditch, it may be imagined that I was in no very fit condition for 
study, even when a quiet hour could be obtained in the evening 
for that purpose; and when / was ready for inquiry, the mind of 
the native interpreter could never be commanded at pleasure. 

“Those whose faculties have been expanded by a European 
education, cannot conceive the stupidity, as they would call it, 
of savages, in every thing beyond the most simple ideas. I have 
sometimes been obliged to allow my interpreter to leave off the 
task when he had scarcely given me a dozen words, it was so evi¬ 
dent that the exercise of the faculty of thinhiny so soon wore out 
his powers of mental exertion. He would then betray by his 
listlessness and vacancy of countenance, that all thought was gone, 
and complain that his head ached, when he always received his 
dismissal for that day."*' 

Nevertheless, after ten years of difiiculties, surmounted by per¬ 
severance, there was in existence, by the year 1830, a Sechuana 
Grospel of Luke, and then came the earnest of the first-fruits. A 
Matabele captive sat weeping, with this portion of the word of 
God in her hand. “ My child, what is the cause of your sorrow V’ 
said the missionary. “Is the baby still unwell?’^ “No; my 
baby is well.^^ “Your mother-in-law?” “No! no!” said she; 
“it is my own dear mother who bore me!” and, holding out the 
Gospel of Luke, all wet with her tears, she added, “My mother 
will never see this good word! She will never hear this good 
news. Oh! my mother, my mother, and all my friends! They 
will die without the light that has shone on me!” 

Mr. Moffat saw his reward when he beheld this love to souls 
kindled in the heart of Afric’s sable daughter; and in 1842, 



SOLITARY CHRISTIAN. 


331 


there was a whole New Testament, in Sechnana, printed by the 
British and Foreign Bible Society, and some thousands of copies 
were sent out to the interior of South Africa, to supply the wants 
of a people rapidly acquiring the art of reading, and multitudes 
of them already able to read in their own language what the 
Buriats called the sacred words of the most high and saving 
God.^^ 

We must give one anecdote with which Mr. Moffat closes his 
delightful book of missionary labours: In one of my early 
journeys, I came with my companions to a heathen village, on 
the banks of the Orange River. We had travelled far, and were 
hungry, thirsty, and fatigued; but the people of the village rather 
roughly directed us to halt at a distance. We asked for water, 
but they would not supply it. I offered the three or four buttons 
left on my jacket for a little milk, and was refused. We had 
the prospect of another hungry night at a distance from water, 
though within sight of the river. 

When tvfilight drew on, a woman approached from the height 
beyond which the village lay. She bore on her head a bundle of 
wood, and had a vessel of milk in her hand. The latter, without 
opening her lips, she handed to us, laid down the wood, and 
returned to the village. A second time she approached, with a 
cooking vessel on her head, and a leg of mutton in one hand, and 
water in the other. She sat down without saying a word, pre¬ 
pared the fire, and put on the meat. We asked her again and 
again who she was. She remained silent, till affectionately en¬ 
treated to give us a reason for such unlooked-for kindness to 
strangers. Then the tear stole down her sable cheek, and she 
repUed, love Him whose servants you are; and surely it is my 
duty to give you a cup of cold water in his name. My heart is 
full; therefore I cannot speak the joy I feel to see you in this 
out-of-the-world place.^ 

On learning a little of her history, and that she was a solitary 
light burning in a dark place, I asked her how she kept up the 
light of God in her soul, in the entire absence of the communion 
of saints. She drew from her bosom a copy of the Dutch New 



332 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Testament, wliicli she had received from Mr. Helm, when in his 
school, some years before. ^This,^ said she, ^is the fountain 
whence I drink; this is the oil which makes my lamp to burnl’ 
I looked on the precious relic, printed by the British and Foreign 
Bible Society; and the reader may conceive my joy, while we 
mingled our prayers and sympathies together, at the throne of 
our heavenly Father.^^ 

As we must look upon the heathen world in the light of the 
future, and under the head of much land ^^yet to be possessed,’^ 
we will not at this point enter into more detail, especially as India 
must be studied alone, and with no wearied attention. For the 
heathen, the translations were going on—are going on still— 
being revised and re-revised; and, as this takes place, they go forth 
and do their work. The ^‘seed is the word,^^ and the field is 
the world. 


CHAPTEE YII. 

Death of Lord Teignmouth, and of Mr. Hughes—Bible Colportage upon the 
Continent—Osee Derbecq—Characteristics of Colporteurs—The young Bible- 
collector in Jersey—Juvenile Bible Associations—Individual Efforts to dis¬ 
tribute the Scriptures—The Testament among the Fishing People of Bou¬ 
logne—A Tract the Pioneer of the Bible—Statistics of Infidel Publications. 

In the year 1834, several of the attached friends of the Bible 
Society—its president. Lord Teignmouth—one of its secretaries, 
Joseph Hughes—its eloquent advocates and supporters, William 
Wilberforce and Hannah More—were removed from their earthly 
labours. 

In the oriental affairs of the society. Lord Teignmouth’s ex¬ 
tensive knowledge of the languages, and his intimate acquaintance 
with the manners and sentiments of eastern nations, (acquired 
while he was Governor-General of India,) were of the highest 
importance. His introduction and recommendation to the agents, 
in their travels, never failed to insure a ready attention, and re- 




LORD TEIGNMOUTH—JOSEPH HUGHES. 


333 


moved many a difficulty in the way of their foreign operations; 
hut the advantage attaching to the rank and station of their 
president was of small account to the Bible Society, when com¬ 
pared with the qualities of his mind and heart. Many of the 
earlier Reports were written by him ; and to the wide correspond¬ 
ence, carried on for several years under his immediate direction, 
he rendered the greatest assistance by the purity of his taste and 
the elegance of his style. 

Mr. Hughes had spent his strength and devoted much of his 
time to the interests of the society for nearly thirty years, as had 
Mr. Owen to the time of his death, in 1822, without fee or re¬ 
ward. When Mr. Owen died, the committee felt how impossible 
it was to expect from any besides these two men, the fathers and 
founders of the society, a similar sacrifice of time and talent, 
without adequate remuneration, now that the business of the 
society had increased and was extending itself to all parts of the 
world. Mr. Hughes was therefore obliged to consent to receive 
the salary which would be allotted to his future successor; but 
his acceptance of it was accompanied by a noble deed of conse¬ 
cration, on his own part, found among his private papers after his 
decease. He says, I have deliberately resolved to appropriate 
the whole of what I may receive from this source, to the relief to 
such private cases, and the support of such public institutions, as 
shall appear most deserving of my attention and encouragement.’^ 
But he had little credit given him for such secret resolve. 

On one of his journeys for the society, he found by his side, 
on the coach, a grave and respectable-looking person. In conver¬ 
sation on topics of general interest, the Bible Society soon became 
the subject of conversation. His companion enlarged on its 
Utopian character, and especially on its lavish expenditure, no¬ 
ticing in a marked way the needless and extravagant expenses of 
its secretaries, as well as their enormous salaries. No one, from 
Mr. Hughes’s countenance and manner, would have conjectured 
that he was a party concerned. But what,” he mildly expostu¬ 
lated, would be your conclusion, were j’^ou informed that their 
services were gratuitous; and that, with a viejv of curtailing as 



334 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


mucli as possible the expenses of travelling, they usually, even 
in very inclement seasons, fix on the ouUide ^—as one of them is 
now doing before your eyes It need scarcely be stated, that 
both the fact and the 'lone in which it was announced, with the 
friendly conversation that ensued, converted an enemy into a friend. 

The memorial of the committee to this good man declares, that 
all the friends of the society were agreed to reverence and love 
him; that he had eminently contributed to mature the plans 
which he had been instrumental in originating; and that, by his 
intelligence and piety, as well as by his remarkable freedom from 
asperity, he succeeded, by maintaining a friendly feeling through¬ 
out its discussions, in preserving the harmony of its councils. 
The memorial concluded with the transcript of a passage from his 
own beautiful letter of resignation, addressed to them when he 
found himself no longer able to fulfil the duties of his office: 

^^The office has, I believe, greatly helped me in the way to 
heaven; but now my Lord seems to say, ^ I have dissolved the 
commission; thy work is done; yield cheerfully to my purpose, 
and prepare to enter those blessed abodes where the labourers of 
the Bible Society shall have brought forth more glorious fruits 
than the fondest hope had foreseen.^ 

Mr. Foster, the celebrated essayist, and the old and valued 
friend of Mr. Hughes, on hearing that his life was quivering in 
the socket,^^ wrote to him a most sympathizing letter, from which, 
when his son read to him the following words,—But oh ! my 
dear friend, whither is it that you are going ?—where is it that 
you will be a few short weeks or days hence V’ —Mr. Hughes 
lifted up his hands, as if to give effect to the reply,—To heaven, 
I am going; there to dwell with God and Christ, and the spirits 
of just men made perfect \” 

But these devoted friends of the society would not wish us to 
linger even by the side of their dying beds; for when they died, 
the work went on, and they bore their testimony that the Divine 
word, which it had been their joy to circulate during life, was 
their ,own strong consolation in the hour of death—the light of 
the border land. Mr. Hughes was succeeded in the secretaryship 



COLPORTAGE ON THE CONTINENT. 


335 


by his much-loved friend, the E-ev. George Browne, minister of 
the Congregational Church, Clapham; and the result has proved 
that the unanimous choice of the committee was made under the 
direction of Providence. For twenty years the society has been 
faithfully served, and its interests efficiently promoted by his judi¬ 
cious counsels, able advocacy, and extensive correspondence. May 
these valuable services be long continued ! 

We must now enter without delay on the subject of— 

BIBLE COLPORTAGE UPON THE CONTINENT. 

From the earliest days of the society, the committee sought to 
extend the circulation of the Bible upon the continent, wherever 
it was possible to find entrance for it. There, popery and infi¬ 
delity reigned: the former, as we have seen, hides the Bible; 
the latter rejects it: for, from all the five classes of the human 
family which we have been considering, there might be gathered 
a larger class than any one, spread among them all —the class of 
infidels, or unbelievers of the written word altogether. These 
abound also, we grieve to know, in our own Protestant England; 
and their infidelity often arises from their want of knowledge 
They do not hnow the history of the volume they reject. Few 
of them have ever read the Book itself, except with intent to ridi¬ 
cule it; and many have it not in their possession. 

A new agency, at this period, seemed requisite in the Boman 
Catholic countries, where the common people more willingly listen 
to persons of their own class than to a minister of the gospel; 
and as God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound 
the mighty,’^ abundant blessing has been poured out on the la¬ 
bours of those who literally ^^go out into the highways and 
hedges,^^ with the holy word of God in their hands, to distribute 
it day by day, and who are called Colporteurs. 

The British and Foreign Bible Society began to send forth 
these colporteurs in the year 1837. For seven years before that 
time, 150 of them had been employed by the Geneva and Paris 
Bible Societies, and their sales of the Scriptures, at reduced prices. 



336 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


gradually increased, and, in the year 1835, amounted to nearly 
45,000 copies. But these colporteurs had circulated religious 
tracts as well as the Bible, and the committee in Earl-street con¬ 
sidered this not to be desirable. Out of 100 persons who applied 
to Monsieur de P., the agent in Paris, to become colporteurs, he 
carefully selected fourty-four, and in four months they sold 45,000 
copies. In the next year, there were sold more than 100,000 
copies; and the number circulated during fifteen years by colpor¬ 
teurs, in France alone, amounts in all to almost seventeen hundred 
thousand copies ! 

These colporteurs now traverse the continent of Europe,—a 
band of humble but zealous and valiant soldiers of the Cross. 
They carry with them the Sword of the Spirit,’^ and their 
weapon is ^^not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the pulling 
down of the strongholds of Satan. 

From the shores of the Mediterranean to the Baltic, in Belgium, 
in Holland, in France, and in Germany, they unfurl the gospel 
banner, and wondrous are the tales they tell of its willing recep¬ 
tion among those who would never have heard of it but through 
their means. 

Some persons were apprehensive that it would shock the feel¬ 
ings even of Protestants, to see the Scriptures hawked for sale, 
from door to door; others feared it would so irritate the Homan 
Catholics, as to provoke collision; but all these fears have ^‘come 
to nought.^^ The circulation of the Holy Word, in these countries, 
was a thing to be accomplished; and God has watched over his 
own work from the beginning. His blessing has never fox a mo¬ 
ment forsaken the faithful labourers, and they have truly to re¬ 
joice over what they have been enabled to do in his strength 
and name. 

A colporteur carries his books in a leathern bag slung over his 
shoulder. He makes the sale of the Bible his only employment. 
It is not by once offering it that he sells it, and he is often obliged 
to wait patiently the result of repeated visits and conversations. 

It is calculated that one of these excellent men offered the 
Scriptures and spoke of their contents, to more than 200,000 



DEATH OF DERBECQ. 


337 


persons. He had been colporting eleven years before be died, 
and sold at least 18,000 copies of the Scriptures. His name was 
Osee Derbecq, and he laboured in Belgium. The Bible Society 
never bad a more faithful servant. His whole soul was absorbed 
in his work; his deep piety and profound humility made him a 
welcome visitor wherever he went; and many persons who had 
persecuted him, afterward became his warmest friends. His dis¬ 
cussions with the Roman Catholic priests and their adherents, 
were full of holy boldness and faithful testimony to the grace of 
God. 

A colporteur, who visited one of his old fields of labour, wrote 
thus: “Derbecq had been here, and had penetrated, as every¬ 
where else, into the most humble cabin. Every moment my 
heart is pained at the thought of his death, when I see the esteem 
in which he is held by the inhabitants of this province, who have 
been a long while waiting his return.'^ 

In more than one locality, where there is now a flourishing 
congregation, he was the sower of the seed. In June, 1847, he 
fell into consumption, but he continued his work till September, 
1848, though in much bodily suffering. At last he procured an 
ass to carry his books, himself walking by its side as long as he 
could. He died at the age of forty-two, and his death made a 
strong impression on those around him, for it was full of bliss. 
Many attended his funeral. He was called the “king of col¬ 
porteurs,^^ and it may be truly said, he died a martyr to the Bible 
Society’s work. 

It has been thought by the committee, that this year of Jubilee, 
a season of which Isaiah speaks as the acceptable year of the Lord 
among the Jews, and which was to be a season of “comforting 
all that mourn,” is a very suitable occasion for commencing a 
fund which shall meet the necessities of some humble and retired, 
but laborious and devoted servants of Christ, like Os4e Derbecq. 

The colporteurs being always chosen from their earnest and 
undoubted piety, it is almost certain that each of the seventeen 
hundred thousand Bibles we have spoken of has been accompanied 
by a prayer. They have all likewise been sold, not given, and 



338 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


will therefore, probably, be more carefully preserved. Seven- 
eighths of them have been of the version of De Sacy, sold in 
France, proving that the work has been carried on especially 
among Roman Catholics. Alas! many of these Bibles have possi¬ 
bly been burnt, but perhaps the greater part have been preserved. 
Our colporteurs frequently report that they have been in districts 
in France where the New Testament is to be met with in almost 
every house; and not a month passes in which one or the other 
does not discover, in various parts of the country, some few in¬ 
dividuals or whole families who unite for the purpose of reading 
the Bible or Testament, to their great comfort. 

One very remarkable fact concerning the colporteurs is this, 
that, with but few exceptions, they have formerly been Roman 
Catholics, and have become zealous friends of the Bible through 
reading copies of the Scripture purchased by themselves of some 
colporteurs. There are continual changes upon the staff, as it is 
called,—from 280 to 300 individuals having been employed since 
the British and Foreign Bible Society took up the work, and 
among these there have been scarcely a dozen who have not proved 
equal to the requirements of their calling. All the rest have, in 
zeal, devotion, and fidelity, been ornaments to the gospel; and in 
the esteem of the public generally, the name of colporteur signi¬ 
fies a man of order and of peace, as well as a good and upright 
man. 

Sometimes the French colporteurs are addressed in this way: 

As for you, you are men of the Bible; you never speak of any 
thing else: you certainly are not men of this world. Whether 
Louis Napoleon or Louis Philippe sits upon the throne, it matters 
very little to you; you are comical fellows; you seem as if you 
belong neither to the republic, the empire, nor to any thing else; 
and, to look at you, and to listen to you, one might almost say 
that God is always before you, and that it is he who governs. 
How is this? Explain yourselves.’^ 

And then they do explain themselves: they stand by many a 
dying bed, and are brought into sympathy with many a strange 
and solemn scene; they sow the good seed through the field of 



SUCCESS OF COLPORTAGE. 


339 


the world, and they often reap, years afterward, the seed they 
have sown. 

The work of the colporteur was never intended to interfere with 
the work of the collectors for Bible Associations, whether at home 
or abroad. It consists in selling Bibles at once^ as many as he 
can in a day. The work of the Bible collector is, as we have seen, 
to receive the weekly penny from those who at one time can spare 
no more. It is carried on, of late years, very chiefly by associa¬ 
tions of ladies, who find many an opportunity of doing good both 
to the souls and the bodies of those whom they thus repeatedly 
visit. Both orders of agency are excellent; and both are found 
necessary, even in England. 

In 1845, it was thus reported: The county of Radnor, con¬ 
taining a population of 25,000, has only five Bible Societies within 
its limit; and of these five, two have little more than an existence 
in name. A well-chosen colporteur commenced his operations at 
the close of harvest, in one of five districts into which the county 
was divided, and within forty-six days he sold, at cost prices, in 
the eight parishes comprised in the district, one thousand and 
eighty-five Bibles and Testaments, among a population of 5804, 
being in the proportion of a copy to every family. He was a man 
of good muscular strength, as well as piety; he walked about 
fourteen miles a day: the farmers and labourers purchased with 
avidity, sometimes to the extent of a copy for every individual 
capable of reading; all were astonished at the cheapness of the 
hooks, and many were the blessings implored on those by whom 
he was employed. 

Notwithstanding all the Bibles that have been supplied in 
England, experience proves, that this history of the county of 
Radnor, in 1845, would be repeated, by the use of the same 
agency, in many an extensive tract of country and in many a 
lonely hamlet, even in this year 1853. 

ladies’ associations. 

But that you may not think that the whole work of the society 
is or can be done Iby colporteurs, and that those who are ignorant 



340 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


of it may have an idea of it as at this time carried on with zeal 
and perseverance by upward of 20.000 ladies in the British em¬ 
pire, we will give you a few particulars concerning a Bible col¬ 
lector, in one of the Channel islands, which may induce some of 
you to follow her example. 

Attached to the second Report of the Bible Society, in 1806, 
is the following letter from the Rev. F. P., of Jersey:—A mem¬ 
ber of your society has encouraged me to lay before you the state 
of the island of Jersey, as it respects the want of Bibles. I need 
not tell you that by far the greater part of the inhabitants speak 
French, and nothing but French, so that if they wish to read 
their Bible, it must be in that language; but war has interrupted 
all communications with Holland and other parts, from which we 
had our Bibles, so that they are , exceedingly scarce. I believe 
there is not one to he bought in the whole island. I know many 
religious families who are without it. They have not even the 
New Testament; and though they would give any money for it, 
it is all in vain. I have known old second-hand family Bibles to 
sell at from two to four pounds sterling, so that none but the rich 
can afford to buy them, while the poor people are greatly in want 
of them.’^ 

In answer to this letter, the committee directed 300 copies of 
the French Testament to be forwarded to their correspondent, to 
be disposed of on terms suited to the circumstances of the people. 
He preached in French to 2000 hearers, who had not among them 
200 Bibles, and from the pulpit told them, that it was to the 
British and Foreign Bible Society that the churches must now 
look for a supply of the word of Grod. 

Other grants of New Testaments followed this, and still, in a 
letter dated 1809, he says, wish you could have seen the 
silent tears of joy fall from many an eye, at the thought that one 
day they would be possessors of the invaluable treasure. Many 
are anxiously waiting for the completion of the Old Testament in 
French. When it is finished, oh ! pray forget not Jersey!’’ 

It is a very interesting fact, that most of the families in Jersey 
are descended from refugees who escaped from the religious per- 



MARIE, THE MINISTER’S DAUGHTER. 


341 


secution in France. It is related of them, that when they had 
to pass the gens-d’armes on the coast, they always tried to hide 
their children, and one of the means employed was placing them 
in baskets well covered with fruit. They are therefore a part of 
the Protestant Church of the Book, and it was delightful to the 
society to multiply to them their ancient treasure. The minister, 
whose letters we have quoted, married an English lady, a true 
Christian, who established a Ladies’ Bible Association in Jersey, 
in 1807 or 1808,—one, therefore, of the very earliest of these 
institutions which worked silently and without official notice, 
probably paying its proceeds into the hands of the gentlemen’s 
committee. 

A ladies’ auxiliary, under high patronage, was established in 
1818, and its president describes Jersey, shortly afterward, as 
^‘our little country still thirsting for the word of life.” 

But it was in the spring of 1837 that some friends of the 
Bible Society, who visited Jersey, found the amiable and inte¬ 
resting daughter of the good minister above mentioned following 
in the steps of her father, who was-yet living, and of her mother, 
who had been removed by death, and very earnestly devoted to 
the work of spreading the Scriptures in the romantic little isle, 
where she had been born. These friends say: 

^‘We once or twice accompanied Marie in her visits to her 
Bible-district, in the streets and lanes of the cro-^ded town of St. 
Helier’s, where the scenes are more foreign fhan Englisli, and 
where she had to cope with the effects of that Catholic supei'- 
stition, which must be seen in detail, in order fo appreciate the 
difficulty of pouring light upon its darkness. 

^^From many and many a door we turned away, where the 
offer of the word of life was rejected with anger and scorn, The 
laugh of derision followed us up stair and alley, or the look of 
surprise varied the vacant face of ignoranpe, knowing nothing, 
and willing to know nothing, but v/hat the priest ordaiped. 
Marie spoke fluently in French, or in patois, when the latter only 
was understQQd, and her English ^as equally ready^ Three inost 
delightful visits were paid, in one mprning, to persons who had ' 



842 


THE HOOK AND ITS STORY. 


been led by this young messenger of mercy to seek pardon for 
tbeir sins, and lay hold on the hope of heayen. 

^^One very aged Frenchwoman welcomed her footstep with all 
the ardour of her nation. We shall not forget that large old- 
fashioned apartment, with its deep recesses and its earthen floor, 
—the fine figure of its inmate, upright as a dart, though incapable 
of moving from her chair,—the delicately plaited and snowy cap 
and 'kerchief,—her knitting cast aside, on which, although blind, 
she was constantly employed,—and both hands at once held out 
to her ^ch^re, ch^re, petite Ma’amselle Marie,' so often the 
cheerer of her lonely home. Marie came frequently to read to 
her of Jesus, and the old woman said she had taken him into her 
heart, and that he was'always with her. She looked very happy, 
and perfectly contented, and seemed to live, from visit to visit, on 
the words she remembered from the book. 

^^In another part of her district, at Le Dicq, Marie had esta¬ 
blished Sunday-schools, where she and her sister had gathered 
together some children in a room on the wild and rugged sea¬ 
shore—a ragged school—before ragged schools were thought of 
in London; and after their early labours, on the Sabbath, in the 
large schools attached to her father’s church, and attending 
morning service, they were accustomed to snatch a slight meal, 
and walk off in all weathers to their new and untamed pupils 
here, who must be taught to read before they could receive the 
Bible, and with whom it was evident that persevering love and 
energy would soon be successful. 

We paid a visit with her to the Bible committee. She had 
many home responsibilities, which were very sweetly fulfilled,— 
and she was the light of the household to her widowed father; 
but these private duties did not prevent her from acting as secre¬ 
tary to more than one oenevolent institution; and of the Ladies’ 
Bible Society, sbe was, steadily and quietly, the moving spring. 
While others might take the honour and the appearance of pre¬ 
cedence, she was -content to work untired, and to bring all she 
could persuade by influence and example to work too, yet herself 
claiming no praise and no observance. Her heart and soul were 



JUVENILE ASSOCIATIONS. 


343 


in the service, and her zeal appeared only equalled by her self- 
knowledge and her humility. 

^‘We told her one day that she was born to be a missionary, 
when she replied, ^It must be a missionary to France; but I 
have work enough in Jersey for many years to come. God has 
placed us, you perceive, between two great nations,—England 
and France. He has given us the government of the one, the 
language of the other, and the privilege of unrestrained inter¬ 
course with both; and I often think why this is. England has 
the gospel, and now gives it to us; France has it not; but Eng¬ 
land has not the language of France, and so cannot speak to her 
in her own tongue. Jersey ought to preach the gospel to France. 
The light which is in her was brought from France. I wish I 
ever might spread Bibles there. 

God did not sulfer this desire to be realized. Ere she reached 
her twenty-second year, he took her to himself, to the great sor¬ 
row of all who knew her. She died of consumption on the 21st 
of August, 1839, the day twenty years after her mother, who 
had been carried off by the same insidious disease; and now, 
father, mother, and daughter, are, we doubt not, together in 
heaven! 

But although these first sowers of the good seed in Jersey are 
no more, the Bible Society continues its work, and the seed has 
sprung up, and brings forth fruit abundantly. Instead of the one 
association in which Marie laboured, there are now fourteen asso¬ 
ciations, a ladies’ branch, and an auxiliary,—each association 
having eight or twelve collectors, besides its officers: upward of 
3000 Bibles have been distributed by them. 

JUVENILE ASSOCIATIONS. 

There is one more department of the agency now at work for 
the Bible Society, which it is particularly pleasant to contemplate. 
Children were among its earliest friends; and in associations 
organized for them by their teachers, in schools and in families, 
they have always contributed to its funds with delight. They 
are beings who are apt to interest themselves in all that is going 



344 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


on around them, and in their little hearts they always keep their 
fathers’ jubilees : Seest thou not what they do in the cities of 
Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather 
wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their 
dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven.’’ Jer. vii. 17,18. 
If, therefore, the children of idolatrous parents help them, what 
is to prevent that the children of those who love God’s word, and 
seek to circulate it, should help them also ? Jesus said, “ Whoso 
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no 
wise enter therein.” The Story of the Book of God is a story for 
all ages. It embraces details almost too many and too mighty to 
be rendered down to the ear of restless childhood; yet it has 
been our highest ambition so to write it that a child might 
understand it; and if we have succeeded, it will work its own 
results. More children will come forward, with the ardour and 
simplicity of their age, to help forward this great work of God. 

Euery child and young person can help. There are fifty-four 
Juvenile Bible Associations entered as tributaries on the books of 
the British and Foreign Bible Society. Some of thorn have very 
pretty names, such as ^‘Twig,” ^‘Blossom,” ^‘Bivulet,” ‘^Drop,” 
and Crumb;” and they are spread over fourteen or fifteen of the 
counties of England. There is also one in Jersey, and several in 
Wales. In Manchester there are four Blossoms,” one of which 
has in the last year contributed the handsome sum of S2L 9s. 9d. 
to the funds of the society. The different Juvenile Bible Societies of 
Manchester, altogether, have raised this year the sum of 63Z. 2s.; 
and the money they collect now is not their chief benefit, for it is 
hoped that many faithful and persevering little labourers will thus 
be trained and raised up to support the Bible society in days to 
come. From among those who are now children, must arise the 
future secretaries, and translators, and home and foreign agents; 
and the present small donations which they bring will be promises 
and pledges of larger donations in riper years. It may be that 
some few will inherit fortune and estate; and if they have belong¬ 
ed to an early ‘^Blossom Bible Society,” it may influence their 
hearts to be the liberal donors of the thousand guineas at a time, 



TWIG AND BLOSSOM SOCIETIES. 


345 


which can nowhere be better cast than into the treasury for the 
distribution of God’s word. Others will give time and talent, as 
they may be needed. 

They will be led to think of the wide, wide world, and its want 
of the Bible, and perhaps themselves make some sacrifices to aid 
its distribution." In the Moravian schools at Fulneck, numbers 
of the young people abstained altogether from sugar, to give the 
amount allowed them in lieu of it to the Bible Society fund. 

Every child who can save, or give, or lead others to give, but 
fourpence a week to a Bible box or association, may every week 
consider that this will be the means of giving the four Gospels, 
if not a whole New Testament, to a poor Chinese. These little 
^‘Twig” and “Blossom” Societies have their regular meetings for 
business, their account-books, and their accounts duly rendered 
in; apd as children at school are sometimes lavishly supplied 
with money by indulgent parents, this opens a source for legiti¬ 
mate investment of much that might be thoughtlessly and selfishly 
spent. 

One of the domestic agents of the Bible Society says that he 
had the pleasure of exhibiting what is commonly called “The Bible 
Society Map”* to the pupils under the care of Mrs. E., of Devizes, 
and that he shall not soon forget the eager attention and deep feel¬ 
ing with which the young ladies surveyed the whole. The moral 
state of the population of the globe was explained by the aid of 
the colours selected for the purpose. All were struck with the 
very small space coloured pink, to represent Christianity, and the 
very large proportion of hlue and yellow, showing what countries 
are still Mohammedan and Pagan. 'It was observed, that the great 
work in which the Bible Society is engaged is to change the moral 
state of the word, to obliterate the blue and the yellow, and to 
pink, that is, to Christianize the whole population of the earth. 
Soon after the little lecture was finished, and while sitting at the 
breakfast-table, a knock at the door was heard, and a little girl 
came in and placed a paper containing something heavy in 


w See page 194. 




346 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Mr.-hand, without saying a word. It contaihed a note, of 

which the following is a copy: The young ladies of Mrs. E.^s 

establishment beg Mr.-’s acceptance of the enclosed trifle 

towards pinking the world—August, 1840.^^ 

The ^Urifle’^ amounted to the sum of twenty-three shillings, 
contributed of their own accord toward an object well worthy of 
it. May many schools do likewise in this Jubilee Year! They 
had afterward the gratification to learn that this money would 
provide at that time twenty-three Testaments and more than nine 
Bibles. It would now provide many more. 


As this chapter has been devoted to a consideration of the agen¬ 
cies at work for the Bible Society, we must not close it without a 
notice of those efforts which are put forth from time to time, by 
individual friends, not officially connected with the society, who 
have scattered the seed of the word where they have resided or 
travelled. The following is but a specimen of one among thou¬ 
sands of opportunities occurring, those who have the object always 
in view, of circulating the Scriptures; and as we have given many 
instances of the way in which missionaries and the friends of edu¬ 
cation co-operate with the Bible Society, this incident will likewise 
show how a tract will often act as a pioneer to the Bible. 

You have heard of Boulogne-sur-Mer; and any of our readers 
who may have passed through that town on their way to Paris, 
or may have resided there for awhile, will, perhaps, know that a 
separate portion of it consists of the dwellings of the fishing-people, 
who devote themselves especially, during the season, to the catch¬ 
ing, curing, and sale of herrings. Les Matelots, as they are 
called, are a very interesting race. They have a peculiar costume, 
—the women wearing short, thick, scarlet or striped skirts, and 
dark-blue jackets, with a beautifully-plaited cap. Their best suit 
is considered their fortune; and the chief piece of furniture in 
their cottages is a large wardrobe to contain the riches of their 
dress, which the girls buy as they earn money by selling fish, or 
carrying boxes and parcels on shore from the steam-boats. They 






^^LES MATELOTS” OF BOULOGNE. 


347 


are a very hardy and industrious race, and are continually making 
or mending nets for their husbands and brothers, while they are 
following their occupation at sea. 

In their way, and according to their own estimation, they are 
very pious. They pray perpetually to the holy Virgin for safety 
in their perilous, vocation; and, on returning from a voyage, they 
go and kneel at the crucifix on the top of the clifis, and offer 
thanks for their preservation. They are very ignorant, because 
no one teaches them; but many are ready to receive, if it were 
offered, the true light of the gospel. 

One of these fisher-girls, of a very interesting appearance and 
kind disposition, was in the daily habit of bringing water from 
the fountain, for the use of an English family, who had taken up 
their residence for three months in a house by the sea-side, not 
far from the fishing-town : her name was Genevieve. One even¬ 
ing she saw the lady at the window, and, somewhat to her sur¬ 
prise, asked her if she would be so kind as to read a little to her, 
as some English lady had done before. She said that she liked 
histories, but had never been taught to read, otherwise she would 
not ask the favour. 

The lady was glad to comply with her request. She read to 
her some chapters in the New Testament, a book that Genevieve 
had never seen, and offered to read a portion of it ^very day, if 
she would come to hear it. 

After some days, the fisher-girl said that she had been telling 
her father about this reading, that he could read, and that he 
wished to have the book. The lady lent her a French New Tes¬ 
tament to take, home with her, and the fisherman read thirty 
pages, on first sitting down to it, aloud to his family, and then he 
took it to sea with him. 

It is usual for several fishermen to own a boat among them, 
and this man read the New Testament to his partners when they 
were out at sea, being particularly pleased with those histories 
which are given in the Gospels, of the Apostle Peter and his 
companions fishing. 

After the glad reception of this one Testament, Genevieve was 



348 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


asked if ske knew of any one else among her people wko wished 
for a Testament in their own language. She said she thought 
she did; and half-a-dozen Testaments being procured from the 
depository of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in the Bue 
de L’Ecu, the fisher-girl accompained the lady up and down the 
alley in which she lived. That was a very different alley from 
an alley in London. It stretches from the top to the bottom of 
the steep cliff; and the houses on either side, being built one 
above another, are reached by flights of broad stone stairs, each 
landing-place having its own sea-view. Here Genevieve’s mother 
was found spinning the string which they afterwards make into nets. 

At every door was offered a New Testament. Two were 
bought, and four were thankfully received; twenty-eight were 
afterwards disposed of, and in three or four houses the lady was 
eventually asked to come and read to them. The best time for 
this was found to be on the Sabbath afternoon, when the women 
came to listen in groups of eight and ten. This is their only 
leisure afternoon of the week, when they generally put on their 
gayest dress and go up the cliffs to the crucifix, pour prier Lieu, 
et adorer la Yierge.” The visitor met with no single instance 
of incivility in all her intercourse with this ‘‘Billingsgate” of 
France; and it appeared to her that if God intends mercy to 
this large town, it is among these despised “esclaves” of the 
population that it will be first received. 

Another incident occurred in the same year, 1847, which made 
a good Frenchwoman say, “ The Lord’s time is come, and He is 
going to work among those Matelots.” 

A poor woman, who lived in the fishing-town, had a tract lent 
to her called “Le Bon Berger.” She lent it to a cousin, an old 
fisherman past work, and he, reading it with great interest, gave 
it a new name. He called it “ La Brebis Egaree.” He read it 
to his wife and daughter, and lent it to his friends, saying, “if 
this was the new religion, they would find it better than the old 
one.” This was because the tract led the people directly to Jesus 
as the Good Shepherd for lost sheep, and not round about, to ask 
for the prayers of the Virgin Mary. 



THE PRECIOUS TRACT. 


849 


It was wonderful, therefore, to see how it appealed to the com¬ 
mon-sense of the people ! It was read to twenty of them at 
once, by a little boy, who was a good, clear, loud reader; and 
then it came back to the old woman who had 'been its original 
lender; but it never stayed at home. First one borrowed it, 
then another: it was read by the crews of five of the boats, and 
at last the lady who was distributing the Testaments heard of it, 
and she borrowed the dirty treasure, and read it with deep in¬ 
terest. ) 

It was a simple allegory, and a fresh proof of the power of 
allegory over the common mind. It depicted the tender love of 
Christ to a lost she^p,—his living to seek it, and dying to save 
it,—in a style particularly calculated to please the French. 

This tract continued to go, dirtier and dirtier, from house to 
house, even more welcomed, and always making way for the Tes¬ 
tament, which it seemed the instrument designed to do. When 
it was reclaimed one day from a fine old Pharisee, who had said, 
she had done so many good works all her days, that God had 
never given her an hour’s illness,” she was heard to say with 
tears in her eyes, Mais je suis cette brebis egaree,” A neigh¬ 
bour of hers had earnestly desired to have it, saying she would 
then take it and read it from house to house, all through the fish¬ 
ing-town. 

A hundred copies of this tract were afterwards put into circu¬ 
lation among the fishing people. In the early spring of 1848, the 
fishing-boat in which Genevieve’s father and brother were part¬ 
ners, went down one stormy night, with all the crew,—so that 
the Testament and the tract were sent to them in the last year 
of their lives; they read both diligently; and let us hope that 
they read to the salvation of their souls. 

Now this fact may present a picture of the state of thousands 
of other districts and towns in Roman'Catholic countries. The 
poor people would hear the gospel if they might. How vast an 
account of souls those have to render at God’s awful bar, who 
leave them alone in their ignorance, or only fill their ears with 
the ’ rubbish of popish miracles and saints’ lives, instead of the 

30 



350 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


» 

pure word whicli God has given to guide all to Himself, as the 
Good Shepherd,’’ we scarcely dare to think. 


And the friends of the Bible had need awake to their respon¬ 
sibilities ! They have on their side God and his word, and the 
promise that truth shall prevailbut the prince of the power 
of the air has also his active agents, and in numbers they far 
surpass the soldiers of the Cross. He has, it is true, no mighty 
organization like the British and Foreign Bible Society, for circu¬ 
lating any one book of fasehood that should deny our Book of 
truth ) but he has earnest missionaries and zealous educators, and 
he causes to be issued an astounding total of tracts and newspa¬ 
pers that serve his purpose. He has until now maintained in 
China and India his giant fabrics of idolatry. He is strengthen¬ 
ing at every point the once crumbling shrines of popery, and he 
has begun to give to infidelity that spirit of co-operation and 
union which was declared to be the only thing wanting to make 
it the most terrible enemy of the Church of God.”* 

The writer of a book called ‘^The Power of the Press,” in¬ 
forms us, that eleven millions seven hundred and two thousand 
copies of absolutely vicious and Sabbath-breaking newspapers are 
circulated every year in Great Britain, while the sum total of the 
issue of Bibles and religious tracts does not amount, in a year, to 
one-third of this number. 

There are about sixty cheap periodicals issued every week of a 
positively pernicious tendency. Some of them issue 100,000 a 
week, some 80,000, some 20,000, having among the whole a 
yearly sale of six millions two hundred and forty thousand. 

There are, besides these, infidel and polluting publications 
which make lovers of the Bible wonder where their readers can 
be found, but which nevertheless have a yearly circulation of ten 
million four hundred thousand ! 

And there are yet others so intensely wicked, that the rest de- 


•* ‘‘Essay on Popery and Infidelity,” by Mr. Douglas, of Cavers. 





PERNICIOUS PUBLICATIONS. 


351 


Bounce them as wicked, and which can only be sold by stealth, 
whose issues this writer specifies as five hundred and twenty 
thousand annually! 

He sums up his total .thus: 

Ten stamped papers . . . 11,702,000 

Six unstamped papers . . 6,240,000 

Sixty pernicious periodicals . 10,400,000 
Worst class .... 520,000 

Total . . . 28,862,000. 

And this is only in our own Christian country. Week after 
week, year after year, does this tide of evil roll on: and what 
does the Church of God do to meet it ? Adding together the 
annual issues of Bibles, Testaments, religious tracts, newspapers, 
and periodicals of every kind, we find a total of 24,418,620, 
leaving a balance on the side of evil of, alas 1 four millions four 
hundred and forty-three thousand three hundred and eighty !* 

It may still be less generally known, that free-thinkers, as they 
call themselves, have now instituted a conference-meeting for ex¬ 
amining the progress of their various societies, in different parts 
of the kingdom. They, too, have perceived that “union is 
strength,^’ and from Bolton, Blackburn, Glasgow, Bradford, Man¬ 
chester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Paisley, Preston, 
Stafford, and Sheffield, they, too, have their reports of each 
other’s proceedings. This is a new feature of the times, and, 
sad to say, the paper which makes known their results, and gives 
union and emphasis to their efforts against the Bible, is con¬ 
ducted with a calm determination, not with low abuse, by a man 
who was once a scholar in a Sunday-school. 

There are annually issued— 

Of infidel publications 12,200,200 
Of atheistic ditto . . 624,000 

Of popish ditto . . . 520,000 

Making a total of 13,344,200. 


See ‘‘Church in Earnest,” pp. 91, 97. 







352 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


All these have their active distributors : they are met with in the 
railway-carriage and on the steamboat, scattering industriously 
and gratuitously those seeds of evil with confident expectation, 
that, when those are well sown, England will be revolutionized. 

Let us arise, then, against this host, to the help of all that is 
holy, and especially to the diligent dissemination of the word of 
God, which shall overcome them all—to the help of the Lord, 
against the mighty 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Jubilee Review of the Heathen Countries of the World—The Bible in India— 
In China: Extraordinary Religious Movement there: Sew-Tseuen, the Leader 
of the Insurgents—Japan in all probability without a Bible—Loochoo Islands. 

Let us now take up the forty-ninth Report of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, issued in the year 1853, and see if we 
think it any longer a dull book,’' being better prepared to under¬ 
stand it. 

Our five threads must also be resumed once more, on which to 
string the facts of chief importance that may be collected from 
our ‘^Jubilee Review;” but we may be permitted to reverse their 
order, and take, first, the heathen and pagan countries of the 
world, and we shall therefore open this Bible Report at page 79, 
upon— 


' INDIA. 

The Indian empire of Great Britain—that vast appendage to 
an island throne—is not merely a country but a continent. In 
ancient days it contained numerous independent kingdoms, 
stretching 1800 miles in length, and 1300 in breadth. It includes 
all varieties of climate, scenery, and soil. The giant range of the 
Himalayas, capped with eternal snow, the fertile plains of the 




THE BIBLE IN INDIA. 


353 


river Ganges, and the high table-land of the Mysore, alike rank 
among its territories. Its 130,000,000 of people speak thirteen 
different languages. Its lowland plains produce the cheapest food 
of various kinds, and the warmth of its climate requires but 
scanty clothing. Its mineral treasures are abundant, and it has 
giant forests of the most useful trees. Its noble rivers furnisli a 
ready highway for trade, and the cheapness of labour brings its 
vast produce into the market at a low rate. The taper fingers of 
its natives can carve exquisitely in ebony and ivory, and their 
shawls, their muslins, and their jewelry, are yet unrivalled in all 
the world. Its population includes the clever and insinuating 
Brahmin, the submissive and patient Sudra, the poor outcast 
Paria, and the indolent Mussulman. It includes the coward and 
cunning Bengali, the spirited Hindustani, the martial Sikh and 
Mahratta, the mercantile Armenian, the active and honest Pars4e, 
the busy Telugu, arid the uncivilized tribes who now inhabit the 
hill forests, but who once roamed as lords over the outspread 
plains. 

These millions of people are chiefly idolaters, and caste divides 
them into sections, each set against the other; but they yield 
implicit obedience to the dictation of their priests, and the asser¬ 
tions of their shastras or holy books;—for the greater part of 
this land is yet unprovided with teachers of the gospel. 

To obtain an idea of the extent of India, we must remember, 
that, if Bussia be kept out of mind, it is as large and populous 
as all Europe; and to realize the state of its missions, we must, 
at present, think of one missionary, to every 350,000 people !—no 
more I Let France be thought of as Bengal, and suppose that 
France were utterly heathen, and that Christian benevolence sent 
thirty missionaries for Paris and the suburbs, two for Guienne, a 
few for Dauphiny, but none for Britanny, Normandy, Burgundy, 
Lorraine, Gascony, Champagne, or Languedoc; then let Bavaria 
be thought of as Bundelkund, Sweden and Norway as Oude, 
Great Britain and Ireland as the various hill tribes, Italy as the 
Nizam’s country, and Turkey and Greece as the Punjaub and 
Scinde, almost together unsupplied with Christian teachers;—you 



354 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


need not wonder that scoffers return home from their Indian 
travels, and say, they never met with a single missionary or a 
single convert.'^ There has been a strange neglect of India 
hitherto as a mission-field. In the West Indies there are not less 
than 350 missionaries to instruct a population of 2,500,000, but 
in India there are but 403 missionaries to 130,000,000 of 
people! 

But now, what has the Bible, the missionary of missionaries,^^ 
done in India ? 

We have seen the great translators, Carey, Marshman, and 
Ward, commencing their work on this wide continent, in 1793. 
In 1806, they began to print the Scriptures in six languages; but 
in 1809, no English Bibles had ever been sent to Madras for sale, 
and it was almost impossible to procure one. In those times, 
when a considerable army was in the field, and it became necessary 
to obtain a Bible, it was with difficulty that a copy could be found 
with any of the European officers or men. Bishop Corrie, in 
1811, makes the following interesting record : In 1807, when I 
was stationed at Chunar, a native Homan Catholic used to visit me 
for religious instruction. There was not at this time any transla¬ 
tion of the Scriptures to put into his hand. [The Hindui Bible 
had not then been published.] I therefore selected some of the 
most important passages in the Bible, and dictated a translation 
of them, very imperfectly, it is true, but to the best of my ability, 
to the poor man, who wrote them on a number of pieces of loose 
paper. I heard nothing more of him for many years, but have 
been lately informed by the Bev. Mr. Wilkinson of Gooruckpore, 
who visited him on his death-bed, that, on entering into conversation 
with him, he was surprised at his acquaintance with scriptural 
religion. He asked an explanation, and the poor man produced 
the loose slips of paper on which he had written my translations. 
On these it appears his soul had fed through life^ and through 
them he died such a death, that Mr. W. entertained no doubt of 
his having nassed into glory.^' 

In 1831, the same excellent bishop avows his belief, that 
future labourers will reap the fruit of the precious seed which the 



BIBLE DISSEMINATION IN INDIA. 


355 


Bible Society has been sowing in India with so much diligence for 
many years past.^^ 

And the reaping of the harvest has begun ; a gradual change is 
taking place in India; she has been given into the hand of Eng¬ 
land for a great purpose; and that purpose is beginning to be ac¬ 
complished. 

The Keport of 1853 refers us to the Bibles that have been at 
work since Dr. Carey’s time, who found in India only the Tamil 
and Telugu Bibles. He published his Bengali, Marathi, and 
Uriya Bibles; then came Henry Martyn’s Hindustani and Persian 
New Testaments, and the Sanscrit Bible from the press at Seram- 
pore. Dr. Buchanan provided the Syriac Scriptures; more per¬ 
fected editions in successive years appeared of the Hindui, the 
Persian, the Telugu, and the Tamil; then came the Malayalim, 
the Canarese, the Punjajiee Bibles, and the Burmese Bible, pre¬ 
pared by the devoted American missionaries. We will not give 
you the whole list of dialects, but they have each done their work, 
silently and surely, or rather have begun to do it; and from this 

word of God, quick and powerful, and sharper than any two- 
edged sword,” the monstrous dragon of idolatry, bred of old in 
the slime of the river of Egypt, awaits his death-blow in the mud 
of the Ganges.* 

When the Calcutta Bible Association was first established, 
which was the happy result of ,a memorable sermon preached by 
Henry Martyn, just before he departed on his memorable journey 
to Persia, its principal object was to give the word of God to the 
destitute Protestant churches in India. In 1840, it declared that 
this object was now effectually accomplished, ^^as, in recent visita¬ 
tions made by the members of the committee, scarcely a family 
of Protestant Christians has been found without the Holy Scrip¬ 
tures. The Armenian churches have also been diligently sup¬ 
plied.” The association then intended to direct its attention 
more particularly to the supply of native Christian churches, and 
Christian schools for the education of the young; and, as educa- 


^ See Katterns’ Sermon on “ India, the Stronghold of Idolatry.” 





356 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


tion in the English language was continually on the increase 
among the natives, new openings for usefulness were constantly 
presenting themselves. 

To the prosecution of this design we may, in 1853, trace the 
issue of far larger numbers of copies of the Holy Scriptures, and 
happy results therefrom. In three successive years, 1849, 1850, 
and 1851, the circulation was 43,969; and we have abundant 
proofs on every side that there is now in this country a wide¬ 
spread general knowledge of Christianity;* that the Christian 
Scriptures are regarded with reverence, and are partially under¬ 
stood by the people; that the blessings which have made England 
great will shortly elevate also degraded India; that the mental 
vigour of the conqueror will be imparted to the conquered; and 
that the justice, the moral tone, alad truth of England are capable 
of being infused into a people who have not known them for ages. 

The Rev. Gr. Grogerly, for twenty-five years a missionary in 
Bengal, gives us the following incidents in proof of the present 
willingness of the natives of India to /receive the Scriptures, in 
contrast to their former reluctance:— 

In the early part of his ministry, in India, Mr. Gr. was one day 
preaching, when a Brahmin came up to listen. After the ser¬ 
vice was concluded, a tract was offered to him with a respectful 
salutation, AVill you receive this, my lord? It concerns Jesus 
Christ the Redeemer of the world. If you receive it, the Sudras 
will also receive it.^ He took it scornfully in his hand, turned 
over two or three pages, tore it across, tore it again, spat upon it, 
and cast it in my face.^' This was in 1818. 

In 1843, the missionaries being on a journey, pitched their 
tent near the encampment of a rajah, who sent to inquire of them, 
^AVho are you?’^ The answer wus returned, ^AVhite people— 
those who possess the Book of God, and beg to offer you a copy 
thereof in Hindustani.^^ The rajah received it graciously, took 
off his turban, and cast it on the floor, putting in its stead the 
book upon his head: then he removed it, and pressed it to his 


See “ Bible in India.' 




HINDUI SCRIPTURES. 


357 


heart, saying, As I have placed it on my head, I will receive it 
into my mind. As I have clasped it to my breast, I will welcome 
it to my heart.^’ We know the native character well enough to 
remember, that this might be all mere politeness, and possibly 
meant nothing more; but still it shows a different state of feeling 
from former contumely, and may be taken as a specimen of the 
present general reception of the Bible in India. 

He adds, ‘WYe had the opportunity of conveying also a copy 
of the Scriptures to Host Mohammed, the potentate of Affgha- 
nistan, (that land of Mohammedans, so inveterate in its opposi¬ 
tion, and which will not admit colporteurs,) through the means 
of an English child with whom he was fond of playing.^^ 

The Bible, which has made England and America the mis¬ 
sionaries of the world, will destroy India’s idolatry and caste, will 
puri^ her people from their immoralities, and will raise her 
female population. But how is it now being distributed in India ? 
^^In 1848, the committee of the Calcutta Auxiliary perceived 
with deep regret that only 35,429 Bengali Bibles had been issued 
in the space of nine years, for the many millions of Bengal. 
While contemplating this inadequate supply, they felt that it 
would be good to institute an extensive succession of missionary 
journeys, to inquire into the wants of the people.” 

In 1852, they again resolved to make grants for these missionary 
tours, and in the cold season planned nine more journeys, three 
of which they proposed to the missionaries of the Church Mis¬ 
sionary Society, and three to the London Missionary Society, and 
others to the Free Church and . Baptist missionaries, &c. The 
demand for Bengali Scriptures was thus again augmented, and in 
one year amounted to 23,288, besides the copies issued from Cal¬ 
cutta to the various stations and agents. 

Owing to the same order of means, the Hindui Scriptures have 
likewise been largely circulated. The Rev. G-. Schatz, of the 
German mission, writes: The cold season having set in early 
and favourably, our brethren were encouraged to march out sooner 
than we are generally able to do at Nagpore; and they have met 
with such a desire after the word of God, in the Chattra district, 


I 



358 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


that we have been obliged to send them one load of books after 
another, and our stock of the Scriptures is so thinned, that we 
shall in a short time have scarcely any book left but G-enesis. 
We hope you will make us some grants of Gospels.’^ 

In reply to this welcome request, the Calcutta Society ordered 
to press, in 1850, 125,000 copies of the Hindui Scriptures. 

The Kev. J. R. Campbell, of ' the American mission at Sa- 
harunpore, one of the most experienced missionaries in the north¬ 
west of India, writes: Our principal distribution of the Scrip¬ 
tures, during the past year, was made at the Hardwar fair, where 
thousands of portions in Hindui, Urdu, Persian, and Punjaubi, 
were given away to pilgrims who could read them, and who ex¬ 
pressed a desire to carry them to their homes in dilferent and dis¬ 
tant parts of India. The Bible is a book well known to the 
heathen in this land, and every year’s' experience convinces us 
more thoroughly, that the word of God is not fettered, but spread¬ 
ing rapidly through the masses of the community. We find now 
but few men of common intelligence who do not know something 
of the leading facts contained in the Christian Scriptures; wnd as 
hut few have had an opportunit)/ of hearing the living preachers 
of the gospel, whence could this' information arise, hut from the 
general and extensive circulation of the word of God? TFe must 
go on distributing the precious seed.” 

The Rev. Mr. Hill, of the London Missionary Society, said, in 
a letter written in 1835: One evening, while preaching at Jag- 
hooly, to about 150 persons at my tent door, I observed a tall 
old man approaching, leaning on a silver-headed cane. He sat 
down with the rest, and listened with marked attention, and after¬ 
ward addressing me, said, ^ Sahib, I have been to every holy place 
in India; I have consulted all the sages and pundits I have met 
with; I am two years short of eighty, and have not found a 
religion in which I can hope for eternity. My remaining days 
are few; the evening of my life has set in; and oh !’ he exclaimed 
with emotion, ^ may it please God to bring me at the close of my 
long life to know and find a way by which I can die in peace! 
Do give me a book which will tell me this way, and I will read 



EAST INDIAN CHARACTERISTICS. 


359 


it earnestly.^ I-gave him a Gospel, and a letter to the Kev. Mr. 
Murray of Chinsurah, for a New Testament. I also led him by 
the hand into the tent, and had an hour’s conversation with him, 
in which I told him that he must expect persecution if he em¬ 
braced the gospel of Christ. I had another interview with him, 
and he heard another sermon before I left the place. His name 
was Prankissen Singh, and I have since learned that he obtained 
his New Testament. Ah ! who can tell how many such persons 
may in the jungles be like him, thirsting for the waters of life, 
and endeavouring to feel after God, ‘ if haply they may find him V ” 

Dr. Buchanan, in 1807, said of the population of India : ‘^The 
best effects may be expected from the simple means of putting the 
Bible into their hands. All who are acquainted with the natives 
know, that instruction by books is best suited to them. They 
are, in general, a contemplative race, patient in their inquiries, 
anxious also to know what it can be that is of importance enough 
to be written. They regard written precepts with respect; and 
if they possess a book in a language they understand, it will not 
be left long unread.’’ 

How delightful, then, to know, from 'the Report of the Madras 
committee, in 1853, that in Southern India,—comprising 195,000 
square miles, and a population of 21,000,000,—Christians are 
endeavouring to leaven this great mass with the word of God, in 
the Tamil, Telugu, Canarese, Malayalim, and Hindustani lan¬ 
guages! Since this committee entered on thhir work, in the 
year 1820, almost 800,000 copies of the Scriptures (though chiefiy 
in portions) have been put into circulation. During the past 
year, the number distributed was 67,418; yet this scarcely 
amounts to one copy for every ten of the estimated population of 
the mere town and suburbs of Madras. You see, then, the field 
to be sown 1 In some of the vast districts, there is lamentable 
need of more missionaries; and wherever a portion is reclaimed 
from the desert, and pains bestowed upon it, a good measure of 
success is sure to be realized. 

For the districts of Tinnevelly and Travancore there is a large 
staff of missionaries and catechists, chiefly those of the Church 



360 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


of England. The same are needed in the native states of Cochin 
and the Mysore. The Tamil translation is still receiving further 
and further revision, though that issued at Bellary was published 
after sixteen years of indefatigable labour. The Scriptures have 
become the text-hook in all the native schools, which are very 
numerous; and thus the native mind is opened from infancy to 
perceive the hollowness of idolatry. Large portions are also com¬ 
mitted to memory. Much attention has been paid by the Madras 
committee to the system of colportage. It is now busily employ¬ 
ing fifteen or sixteen colporteurs, under the superintendence of 
the Rev. T. Brotherton, who says : One of these, Mr. L., speaks 
and reads Tamil, Telugu, and English. He has visited every 
street and every house in a certain suburb of Madras, and made 
an offer of a copy of the Gospel of Luke and of the Acts to at 
least one member of every family. Two others have visited, in 
one year, 365 towns and villages, offering a copy of the gospel at 
every house in every street. It is of no use to wait,’^ continues 
Mr. Brotherton, ^Gill we meet with missionaries learned in all the 
wisdom of the Hindus, Romanists, and Mohammedans, who will 
be able to meet on their own ground the Brahmin, the Jesuit, 
and the Mollah. We must send out the native colporteurs to 
distribute the word of God. If we cannot yet send the living 
preacher to these millions, we can send the living word, and per¬ 
haps we may find the Lord honouring his simple word, making it 
as plain to the comprehension of the Hindu peasant, as he often 
does to that of the European cottager. Mr. Hill, of the London 
Mission, when at one time proclaiming the love of Christ and the 
blessings of salvation, could frequently hear the expressions of, 
^What mercy!’ ^What words of mercy!’ ^We never heard 
such mercy !’ ^ Tarry with us, sahib, and teach us more of these 

things. Build a school, and we will undertake to send, as a 
beginning, eighty boys of respectable families.’ ^ I told them,’ 
added Mr. Hill, ^ that I lived at Berhampore, eighty or ninety 
miles off, that I was fixed, preached, and had schools there; but 
I would give them books by which they might learn more of God; 
and that, if they would read them with prayer, God would teach 



EAGERNESS FOR THE SCRIPTURES. 


361 


them to serve and love him. I gave them ten or twelve Gospels. 
The fields here seem white—white unto the harvest.’ ” 

In the months of November and December, 1852, and in 
January of this year, the Rev. F. Morgan, a Baptist missionary, 
visited numerous places where neither missionary nor Christian 
book had ever been seen before. He says, ‘^The desire of the 
people to obtain the Scriptures is most intense. Imagine a large 
market with from one to two thousand people, myself on an ele¬ 
vated spot, hundreds of hands stretched out, and hundreds of 
tongues shouting, ‘ 0 sahib, a great thing! oh give me a book!’ 
Brahmins and Sudras rolling in the dust together, snatching the 
books from one another; respectable people with children in their 
hands and in their arms, imploring me to put the books in the 
hands of the little ones; books all gone, missionary reeling from 
the effect of dust, noise, and speaking; people imploring for 
more books, and in some places I have been obliged to go to 
police-offices to rest for half an hour. I have seen Brahmin lads 
in tears, because they could not get books, saying, ‘ 0 sahib! I 
ran when I heard you were here, and now what shall I do ?’ In 
many places, I have been permitted to preach on the platforais 
of temples. Brahmins often assisting in the distribution of the 
Scriptures.” 

To meet this readiness to receive the word, the Parent Society 
have made a grant of 500^. to the Madras Society, for colportage; 
and they have already intimated to the secretaiies of Missionary 
Societies, labouring in Southern India, that they will meet the 
expense incurred by any missionary on a tour, one main object 
of which is the circulation of the word of-God, they being fur¬ 
nished with an estimate of the expense, and the plan of the 
journey. 

“What a blank,” say the missionaries, “would be created in 
all our missions, if we had no Gospels or Bibles to distribute 
among our new converts! How soon would they be led astray 
into all kinds of error, if they had not the lamp of God’s truth 
to guide them into the paths of righteousness and peace!” 

Wherever a religious movement has taken place, it has been 

31 



362 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


characterized, in the first instance, hy a desire for the Scriptures. 
Some persons attempt to excuse their disbelief of Christianity 
from witnessing its effects as imperfectly exhibited in the lives 
of some of the native converts; and the heathens are glad to 
adduce their inconsistencies as evidence that there is no diflfer- 
-snce of practice between themselves and Christians. But in the 
pure Book there is no failure! The Vedas, Puranas, and Shas- 
tras shrink before its light. In the Bible itself we see what its 
followers should be-, and this is always found the best argument 
with the natives. 

A most interesting instance of the power of the Scriptures 
over the mind of a learned native is found in the history of the 
Bev. Hormusjee Pestonjee, in whose hands, eighteen years ago, 
a copy of the Gospel of Matthew was placed by a travelling mis¬ 
sionary. The next year the father of this native took up the 
book, and read and re-read it, and recommended his mischievous 
sons to read it, especially the 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters. The 
next year, the family and its friends all feared that this book 
might destroy the son Hormusjee’s faith in Parsiism. The next 
year, he bought himself an English Bible and the four Gospels, 
in Guzerathi, and read both together for the sake of comparing 
the two languages. The next year, which was 1839, the fears 
of the family and its friends were realized. A power from on 
high convinced the hitherto blind reader of the Bible, that it was 
not the language of literature, but the Divine instruction—not 
the letter, but the spirit that was to be pursued. Since that time, 
he says himself: Being first blessed, I have more or less en¬ 
deavoured, in my humble way, to become a blessing to others, 
and to make the Bible itself an ever-increasing blessing to both. 
Once a deluded wretch, I have been recently set apart by the 
Great Author of the Bible to undeceive and enlighten my fellow- 
countrymen by means of this same sacred Book.” In the years 
1852 and 1853, this learned native is mentioned as aiding in the 
revision of the Guzerathi Scriptures. 

But we must leave India, difficult as it is to turn away from it, 
now that its idolatry is on the wane, and its desire for truth on 



INDIA A FIELD OF VAST IMPORTANCE. 


363 


the increase. Mr. Bion of Dacca says: ^^We have been sur¬ 
prised to see how things are changed. Formerly, we were 
scarcely able to speak without dispute and disturbance: now, we 
have always quiet and attentive hearers; and when we asked a 
few days ago, after preaching, whether any one had questions, a 
Brahmin said, before 200 people, ^ Who can say any thing against 
your religion ? It is all true that you say.^ Another, a Mussul¬ 
man, said, ^ The words of the gospel are all very good and true, 
and not, as we formerly thought, mixed with Satan’s words.’ ” 
Near the above-mentioned place, Dacca, in 1818, a number of 
converts were found inhabiting certain adjacent villages, who 
had forsaken idolatry, and who constantly refused to pay to the 
Brahmins the customary honours. They were also remarkable 
for their correctness of conduct and adherence to truth. They 
were occasionally visited by several of our Christian brethren, 
both European and native, and were scattered through ten or 
twelve villages. They were, however, the followers of no par¬ 
ticular leader; they called themselves learners,” and professed 
to be in search of a true lawgiver and teacher. Some of our 
native friends, being very desirous of knowing whence they had 
derived all their ideas, were at length told that they had imbibed 
them from a book which was carefully preserved in one of their 
villages. They were shown this book, which was much worn, 
and kept in a case of brass for the purpose of preserving it, and 
which they were told had been possessed for many years, although 
none of these persons could say whence it came. On examina¬ 
tion, this hooJc was found to he a copy of the Bengali New Testa¬ 
ment, printed at Serampore in 1800. 

Gain India for Christ,” says an eloquent preacher, and the 
world will follow. Destroy idolatry there, and the rest of your 
work will be but clearing the earth from its wrecks. The old 
serpent has yet his throne there; and as you pass along you be¬ 
hold, in token of it, the nest of the living reptile garlanded with 
flowers; but give India the Bible ! she is stretching out hej hand 
to receive it, and it shall carry into the inneiunost recesses of her 
hoary temples the light of the glorious gospel of God. 



364 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


is impossible to read of the devil-worship of Southern 
India, without astonishment and horror. Devotees drinking 
blood, working themselves up into a state of frenzy, and then 
with frantic violence whirling themselves about, in wild tumul¬ 
tuous dances, till they sink down almost dead in a state of ex¬ 
haustion, ‘ led captive by the devil at his will.' In sight of this 
fearful picture, the hideous amusement of the ignorant multi¬ 
tudes, let the solemn fact he weighed and rememhered, that there 
have not been 'published three millions of Scriptures altogether, 
for all the millions of India, who, since this century began, have 
been passing away to death and judgment, and, for its living 
millions who are now hastening on to their eternal doom, —a vast 
multitude of souls, reaching nearly to 500,000,000—a number 
equal to half the population of the globe !" 

CHINA. 

There is no part of the world that at this time can present so 
vast an extent of interest to the eye of the Christian, as China,— 
earth’s most ancient kingdom, as old if not older than Egypt or 
Nineveh, and which has endured while they have decayed! It 
must rival in his thoughts even India. 

A famous marble tablet was dug up at Se-gnan-foo, in the pro¬ 
vince of Shense, in China, in the year 1625 : upon it was a cross 
resembling that used by the Syrians in Malabar, accompanied by 
an inscription in the Chinese and Syriac languages, describing the 
principal doctrines of the gospel, and recording the translation of 
the sacred Scriptures into Chinese. It would appear that, in the 
year 637, Olopen, a Christian missionary, arrived in China, and 
obtained an interview with the emperor, who ordered his minister, 
then the most learned of Chinese scholars, to translate the sacred 
books brought by Olopen. 

The tablet which gives this record was erected, according to its 
own authority, in the year 782. The Chinese discovered it in 
1625; and neither they nor the Jesuits (then their teachers) 
understood the Syrian part of the inscription, till it was trans- 



CHINESE LANGUAGE. 


865 


lated in Malabar, which is not a small evidence in favour of its 
authenticity. 

It may, therefore, hence be concluded, that the old Nestorian 
Church—that purest primitive church of the East—sent one of 
its missionaries into China in the seventh century; which accords 
with the assertion of Mosheim’s ^‘Church History,’^ that ^^in the 
seventh century, the Nestorians penetrated into China, where they 
established several churches.Mosheim likewise says, that the 
Nestorian Christians were found in China till the beginning of 
the fifteenth century. 

The above translation, made by the Chinese minister, may or 
may not be in existence. In 1805, the committee of the Bible 
Society, having heard of a Chinese manuscript version in the 
British Museum, instituted particular inquiries concerning it. 

They found that it contained a harmony of the four Evangelists, 
the Acts of the Apostles, and all the Epistles of St. Paul, except¬ 
ing that to the Hebrews; but it appeared from the style and 
wording to have been made from the Yulgate, under the direction 
of the Jesuits; and for this and other reasons it was considered 
better to objain an entirely new translation. 

This version was, however, very useful in assisting Dr. Morri¬ 
son in acquiring the language; and in 1807, he was sent by the 
London Missionary Society to Canton. 

The Chinese have no alphabet: every written character is a 
word. In difiierent parts of China they sjpeak the language very 
differently, but it is everywhere written in the same way. 

Three thousand different characters are in very general use. 

Some of them are simple, as a field, a horse, ^ a sheep; 

and some are complex, as %\\ le, which means gain or profit. pQ 
it must be a difficult task to learn Chinese. Dr. Morrison’s dicr 
tionary contains 40,000 characters. This is found ip the library 
of the Bible Society, in six volumes; it was printed ip Malacca, 
and cost him ten years’ labour. He was una|)le to print it in 
Canton, from the jealousy of the Chinese, 

The following curious characters are Chinese. This specimen 
SI* 



366 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


a portion of the beginning of the first chapter of St. John^s 
Gospel:— 


IS 


m 

A 

# 



dji&f —- 

^ IS 


z 

m 


# 





z 


#. 


a 








— 




Ji 


e 

m 






IM 


4 

'm 


# 


la 



m 

Rl' 





A 

T 

tfn 

M 

• IWV 





BS 









K 


K 



Bg 


Z 

yi 

§ 




75 

ffij 

z 

m 


Morri 

!son taught himself this 

i difficult langi 

aage. 


Dr. Morrison taught himself this difficult language, that he 
might translate the Bible. He accomplished the translation of 
the New Testament, in the year 1814, after seven years’ incessant 
study, at first undertaken in a cellar, by the light of an earthen¬ 
ware lamp, to avoid observation ! The first Chinese convert found 
a blessing to his own soul, while assisting Dr. Morrison to print 
his New Testament. AVhile thus engaged in preparing the Bible 
for his countrymen, he began to see that the merits of Jesus 
were sufficient for the salvation of all mankind, and hence believed 
on Him—the Holy Spirit printing the word upon his heart.” 

In May, 1814, by the sea-side, at a spring of water issuing 
from the foot of a lofty^ hill, far away from all human notice, was 
baptized by his rejoicing teacher, in the name of the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, Tsae-ako—the first-fruits of a great harvest' 




DR. MORRISON—LEANG-A-FAH. 


367 


of souls yet to be gathered in, after the sowing of the seed of 
the word. 

Tsae-ako adhered to the profession of the gospel until his death, 
which took place, from consumption, in 1818. 

The London Missionary Society afterward sent out Dr. Milne 
to the aid of Dr. Morrison. Dr. Milne was instrumental in the 
conversion of a Chinese named Leiing-a-fah, whom Dr. Morrison 
ordained to the work of an evangelist among his countrymen. 
Leang-a-fah is still living, a valued member of the Canton mission, 
and has laboured for upward of thirty-six years with unwavering 
fidelity among those who, he says, are glued fast to ten thousand 
forms of idols, but striving to set an example that will move men’s 
hearts—praying that the most high Lord will convert them.” 

The above is an extract from one of his letters in 1828; but 
it is not till the Jubilee Year of the Bible Society that G od seems 
to have poured out a special blessing on the efforts and prayers of 
this first Chinese evangelist. 

Leang-a-fah laboured with Dr. Morrison continually, to scatter 
the word of life in separate portions among his countrymen. He 
resolved to write short tracts to explain the Scriptures, which 
he has called Scripture Lessons, or G-ood Words to admonish 
the Age,” for distribution among the students at the literary 
examinations. 

On the 1st of August, 1834, the beloved Morrison was called 
away by death. He died at Canton, amid the few prayerful 
and sorrowing converts who were given him for his reward during 
his twenty-seven years of patient toil; and it is said he died 

panting after the salvation of China.” 

On the 20th of the same month, Leang-a-fah, with two other 
Christian friends, went out to distribute his Scripture Lessons,” 
at the examination of literary candidates. He distributed 5000 
one day, and 5000 the next. On the third day came persecution; 
one of his friends received forty blows on the mouth, which ren¬ 
dered him unable to speak; the second was put to death; and 
Leang-a-fah fled to Singapore, and found refuge on board one of 
the English ships at Lintin, and from thence he thus writes: I 



368 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


call to mind that all who preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
must sulfer persecution; and, though I cannot equal the patience 
of Paul or Job, I desire to imitate these ancient saints, and keep 
my heart in peace.’' 

Leang-a-fah little thought that one of the tracts, distributed at 
such a risk, was to prove the first seed of revolution in China, 
and to turn her from her idolatry, 4000 years old, to the worship 
of the living God : but as the oak is in the acorn, so it was; and 
he who sowed the acorn lives to see the springing up of the tree 
that he planted. 

We must now recount to you the last information received 
from China concerning the wonderful rebellion,” as it is called, 
which threatens to overthrow the Mantchoo or Tartar dynasty. 

It appears that the insurgents have a leader called Tae-ping- 
wang, or Sew-tseuen, whom they design to elevate to the throne. 
They everywhere announce their resolution to deliver the Chinese 
nation from the Tartar yoke. They are well received by the 
population, and obtain without difl6.culty large contributions in 
support of their cause. But the most remarkable circumstance 
attending their progress is, that neither they nor their chiefs are 
idolaters. Wherever they appear, they destroy the bonzes, the 
joss-houses, and the idols, and the latter are seen floating in 
broken fragments down the rivers,—Buddhas of twenty feet and 
more, floundering about in the water,—idols esteemed only as 
blocks of wood, to be hacked, and hewed, and broken in pieces. 

Sew-tseuen has hitherto been victorious. He has taken Nankin 
and many other cities, and is master of the great canal by which 
grain is conveyed to Pekin. He has summoned the mandarins 
to receive him as their legitimate sovereign, descending in the 
ninth generation from the last prince of the Ming or native 
Chinese dynasty. His policy seems to be to make war upon the 
Tartar authorities, but to protect the people; and among so 
methodical and ingenious a nation as the Chinese, it is evident 
that the state of disorder described will be but of short duration. 

Be the government of China what it may, it cannot be worse 
than that which seems likely to be now overthrown. The Mant- 



ACCOUNT OF SEW-TSEUEN. 


369 


choo dynasty has shown itself ready, whenever it dared, to perse¬ 
cute the Christian religion, to restrict the trade of the empire, 
and to evade its engagements with foreign nations. But the dis¬ 
position which has of late years been manifested by the Chinese 
themselves to adopt a purer faith, to extend their commerce, and 
even to emigrate to Australia, California, and the Mauritius, 
shows that the oppressive policy of the government is by no 
means the same with the views and interests of the people. 

It seems that the chief, Sew-tseuen, has been the enlightener 
of his followers in religious matters, even more than their leader 
in war, and he has given a history of his own acquaintance with 
the scriptural truths which he now publishes under an imperial 
seal, in some Chinese tracts which have been carefully read by 
Dr. Legge, at Hong-kong, who has communicated the information 
to the Bible and Missionary Societies in London. 

Sew-tseuen was one of the literary candidates who received 
from Leang-afah and his companions, in 1834, ^‘Scripture 
Lessons, or Good AVords to admonish the Age.’^ This was the 
first thing that aroused his mind. In 1837, after receiving the 
truths taught in the tract, he, suffered from some disease, during 
which he thought he was taken up to heaven, and records that 

his soul saio” many things which confirmed the new doctrines 
with which his mind had been occupied. Probably, in the 
delirium of fever, he confounded the ideal wdth the real, and 
hence may have arisen the visions with which he is supposed to 
have been favoured. It is a fact that a kind of divine origin or 
mission is ascribed to him, whether actually, or merely in the 
language of the flowery land,” is not ascertained. His other 
name, Tae-ping-wang,” signifies the prince of peace.” He 
' forbids, by an edict, any application to himself of the words 
supreme or holy, hitherto assumed by the emperors of China, 
which he declines on the ground that they are due to God alone. 

In 1844, he composed various works; and in 1846, resided in 
Canton, with Mr. Boberts, an American missionary, seeking for 
further instruction. Some obscurity rests over his subsequent 
course; but there soon followed the organization of the rebellion, 



370 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


some few years of fighting in the west, and then a triumphant 
progress from strength to strength, till Nankin fell before him on 
the 19th of March. 

Such is the history of the rebel chief. Now, what are the 
truths his followers have been taught to believe? 

They announce a belief in one only, the living and true God; 
this they hold firmly, and with the earnestness of a nation newly 
awakened from idolatry. They base their belief of it on the 
teaching of the Old Testament, and on the most ancient books 
and practice of China;—for their own books testify that the 
most ancient Chinese must have known the true God; while 
they also admit, that, so early as the twenty-sixth century before 
Christ, the ^Gmpish devil drew men into his toils, and taught 
them to worship other and evil spirits.^^ 

In a letter from Shanghai, it is said that the rebels will not 
tolerate idolatry, either Catholic or Pagan. Shortly after they 
obtained Nankin, the Koman Catholics were, on Good Friday, 
performing their usual services in one of their chapels. The in¬ 
surgents inquired, ‘‘What is all this about?’^ They replied, 
“We are worshipping the Lord of heaven.^' “Whose images, 
then, are these upon the wall?’^ It was answered, “The images 
of Christ and the Virgin Mary.^^ They were then instantly de¬ 
stroyed. These deeds of summary determination seem necessary, 
in order to strike at the root of that vast system of idolatry 
which has hitherto ruled in China. We are told of an immense 
temple, in which 500 heathen priests were officiating at once. 
They were all in a standing posture, making their vain repetitions, 
“Ometo feh! ometo feh!’^ This is customary three times a day. 
In the centre of this temple stood three enormous idols, and all 
around were multitudes of other idols of various sizes, enshrined 
in great magnificence and costly splendour. 

With the idols, much other heathenish nonsense has been 
swept away,—all the distinction of days into lucky and unlucky 
with which the Chinese almanacs have hitherto been filled. 
“These,’’ say the rebels, “were artful devices of the devil. We 
have now expunged them all. Years, months, and days succeed 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT IN CHINA. 


371 


one anotlier according to the appointment of our heavenly Father. 
They are all lucky—all good. Let a man reverence, with a true 
heart, the great God, and he may hope for success in his under¬ 
takings, whensoever commenced. 

The sincerity of their belief in one God has led those rebels 
to understand that all men, as the children of God, are brethren. 
They speak of the world as a whole, and say, It is one family.^^ 
“ There are many men under heaven, but all are brothers : there 
are many women under heaven, but all are sisters. Why should 
we indulge the wish to devour and consume one another 

This is the noble idea that will break down the great wall of 
China,—1500 miles long, and 2000 years old,*—which is said 
to contain material sufficient to rear all the dwelling-houses in 
England, Wales, and Scotland, and whose very towers would 
erect a city as large as London. 

^^One family,^’—‘^all brethren,^^—these are new words for 
the Chinese to use, who have hitherto called all nations, ^Hhe 
outside barbarians All hail to our new brothers! who, in 
themselves, form one-third of the great family. And what gift 
shall we send them as a token of our acknowledgment of the 
relationship?—a million copies of the New Testament of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! 

They are deeply in want of this precious gift. They do not 
seem at present to possess it. They have made three rules for 
their army, when encamped: 1st, You must reverently honour 
the orders of heaven; 2d, You must thoroughly learn the Ten 
Commandments, the Doxology, the forms for morning and evening 
worship, and for saying grace; 3d, You must not smoke opium 
or drink wine.^^ They appear to possess, for they have them¬ 
selves reprinted, the first twenty-seven chapters of Genesis, ac¬ 
cording to the version of the late Dr. Gutzlaff. Perhaps, also, 
they have the whole of the Pentateuch; but there is nothing in 
their hooks about the cross” They have not yet studied the life 
of Jesus, or the Acts and Epistles of the apostles. They must 


See The Chinese; a Book of the Day/’ by the Rev. T. Phillips. 




372 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


be enlightened by the whole word of God; and let the British 
and Foreign Bible Society, in this its Jubilee Year, hasten to 
present them with the New Testament, to disperse the errors 
which at present mingle with truth in their belief and practice, 
and to show unto them the more excellent way.^^ They have 
not renounced polygamy; they still make offerings of animals, 
tea, rice,, etc., to God; and they have faith in present visions and 
revelations. Means must be taken,’^ say the missionaries, “ at 
whatever personal risk, to put them in possession of the entire 
Scriptures.^’ 

Let us do this hy families: let every family, rich and poor, 
throughout Great Britain, resolve to give to China the sum of so 
many Testaments, at 4cZ. each. Some young collector would be 
found in every household. Were this plan adopted, as it already 
has been in many districts, the million required would soon pour 
in : and ^‘what is that among so many?”—one million of Testa¬ 
ments to 360 millions of people ! They will, however, soon re¬ 
print them for themselves, as, by their simple method of printing, 
they are enabled, without screw, lever, wheel, or wedge, to throw 
off 3000 impressions 6f any page in a day. 

The whole apparatus of a printer in China consists of his gra¬ 
vers, blocks, and brushes. These he may shoulder and travel 
with, from place to place, purchasing paper and lamp-black as he 
needs them; and, borrowing a table any where, print.editions by 
the hundred or the score, as he may be able to dispose of them. 

There are generals in the rebel army—men of Kwantung and 
Kwang-se—who, it would seem, are deeply influenced by the 
belief that God is always with them. 

The hardships they have suffered, and the dangers they have 
incurred, are, as they assert, punishments and trials of their hea¬ 
venly Father, and the successes they have achieved are instances 
of his grace. With the glistening eyes of gratitude they point 
back to the fact, that, at the beginning of their enterprise, some 
four years ago, they numbered only 100 or 200, and that, except 
for the direct help of their heavenly Father, they never could 
have done what they have done. ^ It is said,’ they continue, ^ that 



THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 


373 


we use magical arts j hut the only magic we have used is 'prayer 
to God. When our numbers reached from 2000 to 3000, and we 
were yet beset on all hands by greater numbers—when we had 
no powder left, and our provisions were all gone—our heavenly 
Father showed us the way to escape. So we put our wives and 
children in the midst, and not only forced a passage, but com¬ 
pletely beat our enemies. If it be the will of God that our prince 
of peace shall be the sovereign of China, he will be the sovereign ^ 
of China; if not, then we will die here.’ 

‘‘ The man who used this language of courageous fidelity to the 
cause in every extreme, and of confidence in God, was a shrivel- 
led-up, elderly, little person, who made an odd figure in his yellow- 
and-red hood; but he could think the thoughts and speak the 
speech of a hero.” 

Dr. Legge thinks that tbe rebels cannot have had much, if 
they have had any, teaching from Protestant missionaries. .These, 
however, have been at work in China, though few in number, at 
the free ports. 

The Chinese Repository recently stated, that only 150 mission¬ 
aries have laboured in China since the arrival of Dr. Morrison in 
1807, of whom seventy-three are now in the field, twenty-nine 
have died, and forty-eight have returned in ill-health or discouraged 
at the difficulties of her peculiar language. Of those who remain, 
twenty-three are Englishmen, forty-four Americans, and six Ger¬ 
mans—only seventy-three Protestant missionaries for 360,000,000 
of people !—eleven at Hong-kong; ten at Amoy; twelve at Fun- 
chau; seventeen at Ningpo, including Miss Aldersey, a Christian 
English lady, who has devoted herself to the education of native 
females; and twenty-three at Shanghai;— no more. Yet this 
handful of men may have done much to send up the country the 
Missionary they found in Chinaf conversant with its language, 
and diligently engaged in instructing the heathen. Let us hear 
what Mr. Abeel, an American missionary, one of those who had 
been in China, said of this Missionary at the thirtieth anniversary 
of the British and Foreign Bible Society : 

^^This Missionary,” said Mr.' Abeel, ‘^had made repeated 
32 



374 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


voyages along the coast of China, from island to island, and from pro¬ 
vince to province, and the ships which bore him thither had often 
left him alone; and what did he do ? Alone and unaided, he 
entered town, hamlet, and village, and found that almost every 
one among these civilized heathens understood him. He pene¬ 
trated up to the capital, and it is said that he even'entered the 
palace. This Missionary afterward did me the honour to accom¬ 
pany me, and such another companion I never expect to find. 
Where I could not go, he went; and what I could not do he did. 
He laboured successfully among the millions who had no teacher, 
and he instructed for weeks together even one of the principal 
priests of the empire, chaplain of the emperor. This Missionary, 
with all his powers, became my servant, I sent him on hoard some 
junks that were returning to China, and there he sat, day by day, 
teaching the mariners, and reading with them; and at the end 
of their voyage he again went forth, as he had done before. 

“ Are you desirous to know who this Missionary is ? I will 
first tell you who he is not. He is, not a Churchman; he is not 
a Dissenter; he is not a Calvinist, nor an Arminian; he is neither 
an Englishman nor an American; he appears to hate all sects, 
many of the most prominent of which I never heard him deign to 
mention. This Missionary is The Bible, the only Missionary 
upon whom myself and my fellow-labourers depend for the con¬ 
version of the world. He is gone forth into China, and into all 
the vast kingdoms and islands of the East. I had the honour at 
some of the outposts to visit the junks carrying on the China trade, 
and to supply fifty of these junks with that Missionary; and so 
by one means or another he will traverse the length and breadth 
of the empire.’^ 

He has done so for twenty years since then ! China has 
eighteen provinces, and embraces a space of five millions and a 
half of square miles, with a population so dense, that they are 
obliged to cultivate all but their most sterile lands for food, to 
live in junks upon their rivers, and even to terrace their nioun- 
laiiis for agriculture, and grow water-lilies upon all their lakes, 
of which they eat the seeds and roots. Its population are edu- 



DESTITUTION OF INDIA AND CHINA. 


375 


cated; and they can furnish books to each other for a mere 
trifle. The works of Confucius, written on 400 leaves, can be 
purchased for ninepence. Every peasant and pedlar has the 
common depositories of knowledge within his reach. Throughout 
the empire they can read the same character, even although 
they speak different dialects; therefore, when the pure morality 
of the gospel, with all the stupendous facts of Scripture history 
shall be once fully brought before the minds of this intelligent 
race, ^^a nation may be born at once’^ into an inheritance of 
all the privileges of the gospel. Isa. Ixvi. 8. 

Those who are familiar with the most interesting journals of 
the Bishop of Victoria, of Dr. Medhurst, aud of Dr. Gutzlaff, will 
readily call to mind the times in which the good seed was soion, in 
many an hour of depression—by Dr. Morrison, the flrst translator 
of the Chinese Scriptures in this century, as he made use of grant 
after grant from the British and Foreign Bible Society, and felt 
and said it was “but a drop in the ocean,^’—by his indefatigable 
son and successors, often amid privation and persecution, still re¬ 
vising and re-revising the first translation of the Book of God, and 
dispensing it to many a glad and grateful heart. The Bible So¬ 
ciety has always afibrded every facility to the labours of these ex¬ 
cellent missionaries, and China was one of the especial fields in 
which, at the commencement of this year, it intended to sow more 
diligently the seed of the word, and the fruits of the Jubilee; but 
if this field is about to be thus extended, it will make an irresisti¬ 
ble appeal to England and America, for efforts on a nobler scale 
than any of which they have hitherto even dreamed. 

India and China, alone, present to the eye of the Christian the 
destitute population of half a world. 'We have been honoured to 
create the hunger for the bread and the thirst for the water of 
life, and now we must supply it, and teach them how to supply 
themselves. 

Their present destitution, and their willingness to receive the 
Scriptures, are great facts, and the English mind always bends to 
the power of facts, and acts upon them, preferring to draw its own 
inferences. The Bible Society has never wanted funds, since the 



376 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


first hour of its existence, to carry out its necessary designs, and 
we believe it never will. It cannot accomplish the work that 
now opens before it on its present free income of about fifty 
thousand pounds. And what ought to be its Jubilee offering f 
At the moment when this is written, it has only reached thirty- 
four thousand pounds. It has not yet received the willing olfer- 
ings of all Britain’s merchant princes,—‘^casting in of their 
abundance,”—knowing, as they do, that it is their Bible that makes 
them what they are among the nations of the earth,—sitting in 
peaceful sovereignty, while others are convulsed with revolutions ! 

A quarter of a million of money is said to have been expended 
upon the dress of one image of the Virgin Mary in the city of 
Rome! Roman Catholicism has sent forth her earnest teachers 
of tradition, who are afraid to print the Bible, and she has ^‘con¬ 
verts by millions, in China.” In 1830, their mission cost the 
sum of 40,000/. Mohammedanism (not by fire and sword, but by 
the milder arts of proselytism) has, in China, shamed the puny 
efforts of those who send forth the more holy book. We may, 
indeed, almost wonder at our Protestant successes. 

In 1835, Mr. George Borrow, superintended the printing of a 
version of the New Testament in Mantchoo, a dialect much used 
in the north of China. Dr. Morrison, when he heard of this 
translation, remarked, “how wonderfully unconnected labours 
were now brought to bear upon each other, and blend in their 
effects ; and he trusted that the Mantchoo Bible would be of great 
use in’the northern dominions of the Chinese empire.” 

The missionaries among the Buriat Mongols, also, after ten 
years of labour, completed a translation of the Scriptures into 
Mongolian; and Mr. Stallybrass says: “When we regard China 
as about to be opened for the reception of the glorious gospel, 
this version rises much in importance. It is intelligible to all 
those who inhabit the vast tract of country between Siberia and 
the Chinese wall, as well as to many of the Chinese themselves.” 
Mr. Knill adds, concerning this version, “ Our Siberian mission 
is as near to China as Wales is to England, the same idolatry 
being practised on both sides of the frontier. Some of the young 



THE BIBLE, AMONG THE MONGOLS. 


377 


natives engaged in tliis translation used to come to Mr. Stally- 
brass, almost every evening, with their New Testaments in their 
hands, asking him to explain certain passages, and they had (like ' 
our own good King Alfred) little text-books, which they carried in 
their bosoms, in which they have written passages which have 
particularly struck them.* It is delightful to mark how a beam 
of sacred pleasure lights up their features, when some new view 
of Divine truth breaks upon them,—some fresh point from which 
they can contemplate the love of the Saviour. Last Sabbath, at 
our usual Mongolian service, I requested one of them to read the 
third chapter of John’s Gospel. When he came to the words, 

‘ God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life,’ his voice faltered, and with difficulty he read a little farther; 
but when he. came to the words, ^ Thi is the condemnation, that 
light is come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than 
light, because their deeds were evil,’ his feelings completely over¬ 
came him, and his voice was drowned with sobs and tears. I 
finished the chapter,” adds Mr. Knill, ^^and preached to the 
people.” 

This translation was completed in 1841. “We wait,” say the 
Parent committee, “ only for the opened door; for we grieve to 
say that the mission has, by authority, been broken up. The Old 
Testament has been printed, the New revised, the sanction of the 
committee is given for printing 3000 copies; but when the work 
will be undertaken still remains to be seen. The faithful convert 
Shagdur continues active in the distribution of portions of the 
Mongolian Scriptures. In 1840, Shagdur went out to distribute 
copies of the Scriptures in the districts immediately bordering on 
the Chinese frontier. In a few days, the whole of his stock was 
disposed of. He says he felt like a man who had gone out with 
a bushel of seed-corn to sow a field of ten acres. The Mongolian 
Scriptures find their way to many who understand the language 
in the Chinese empire, and we have been repeatedly told that the 


See page 121. 
32» 





378 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


hoohs are well understood^ are much sought after, and we hope not 
read in vain.”^ 

In 1848, the committee, at the earnest recommendation of Dr. 
Barth of Grermany, granted the sum of 100/. to Dr. Gutzlafif, for 
the Chinese Union, composed of converted natives, a considerable 
number of whom traverse the interior parts of China, introducing 
the word of God into those portions of the country to which no 
missionary had access. 

Wong-shao-yet, the colporteur, lately went to Hangchau. 
The people are very willing there, as at other places, to hear and 
receive the word of God. He has the utmost facility in circu¬ 
lating single portions of the Holy Scriptures. It is evident that 
there is a wide and inviting field for Christian labour in China; 
and, though restrictions exist as to the admission of foreigners, 
native assistants can freely distribute to the countless multitude 
the words of life. There is positively nothing in the way of the 
unlimited employment of such agency; and we are fully per¬ 
suaded that by this means, in a great measure, China is to be 
evangelized and converted to God. The gratifying reports of this 
colporteur are confirmed by the personal observation of the 
missionaries.^^ 

The Report for 1849, page 132, also contains the names of the 
places where these portions of Scripture have been circulated; 
and among them are found the very districts or provinces of 
Kwang-tung^ and Keang-se, named as the native places of the 
leaders in the present movement. 

The Report for 1850 says, ^^Dr. Gutzlaff received from the 
British and Foreign Bible Society two additional grants of 100/. 
each, for the distribution of Chinese Testaments, and also 200 
copies of the Buriat, Mongol, and Mantchoo Scriptures.^^ 

In 1852, the committee at Shanghai were encouraged by the 
Parent committee to print a small edition of portions of the New 
Testament in Mantchoo and Chinese, in parallel columns; and 
for this purpose the British and Foreign Bible Society’s fount of 


Thirty-sixth Report, page 11. 




ISLANDS OF JAPAN. 


379 


Mantchoo type has been forwarded to China, Dr. Medhnrst having 
written, ‘‘We think that Scriptures printed in this form would 
be useful, as there are many Chinese and Tartars partially ac¬ 
quainted with both languages, who would be very glad to obtain 
books printed in this manner, when otherwise they might not give 
attention to them.^^ 

With these types were also forwarded 200 more copies of the 
Mantchoo New Testament, with 100 Bibles and 200 Testaments 
in Mongolian. 

These, then, are some of the avenues by which the word of 
God has entered China. Perhaps some day the treasure may be 
returned with interest to the Buriat Mongols when there shall be 
a Chinese and Foreign Bible Society, and when China has learned 
to evangelize, not to exterminate, the Tartars. 

JAPAN. 

It does not appear that there is yet any Bible for the islands 
of Japan, which contain a population, it is said, of nearly fifty 
millions of inhabitants. Japan is a dark and unknown world. 
Jesuit missionaries from Portugal settled there in the sixteenth 
century, and induced great numbers of Japanese to embrace their 
form of Christianity; but these having offended the government, 
a persecution was commenced against them to the death. This 
happened in the seventeenth century; and ever since then, the 
penalty of death has been denounced against all who refused to 
prove that they were not Christians, by trampling on a picture of 
the “Virgin and Childand all foreigners were banished from 
the empire, except a few Dutch merchants, who are still confined 
to an island in the harbour of Nagasaki. 

As they will, therefore, hold no intercourse with other nations, 
it is impossible to translate the Bible for them. The Bible So¬ 
ciety has desired to do so, from the year 1816. In the Keport 
for 1817, will be found a very interesting letter from the Rev. J. 
Supper of Batavia, on this subject. This gentleman had made 
inquiries of persons who had formerly resided in Japan, and who 
declare “that the people have no books; that the ofi&cerr of 



380 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


government pay frequent visits to every house, and if they dis¬ 
cover even a small piece of paper which relates to the Christian 
worship, but particularly to the cross of Christ, the dwelling in 
which such a paper is found is immediately razed and destroyed, 
and the inhabitants condemned to death.^^ 

In November, 1831, a coasting-junk of about 200 tons burden, 
bound to Yedo, the capital of Japan, with a cargo consisting partly 
of rice and partly of tribute to the emperor, was driven by a 
storm into the Pacific Ocean. The crew, entirely ignorant of 
their course, let the vessel drift wherever the winds and waves 
would carry her, and, after being tossed about for fourteen months, 
were cast on shore near the Columbia River. During this long 
period they had subsisted chiefly on rice and fish. Eleven had 
died of scurvy, and the remaining three were nearly helpless 
when they landed. The Indians of that region plundered them 
of every thing, and kept them captive for several months. 

At last their history became known to a benevolent factor of 
the Hudson’s Bay Company, who sent them to England. In 
London, many persons took an interest in their welfare, and they 
were thence sent to China, and committed to the care of the 
superintendent of the British trade, with the hope that they 
might at last reach home. They arrived at Macao in 1835, and 
resided with Dr. Gutzlafif, who regarded it as a good opportunity 
to acquire some knowledge of their language. That admirable 
missionary made use of the power thus attained to prepare a 
translation of the Gospel of John, in Japanese, in which he 
availed himself of the aid of the natives. These three wanderers, 
named Twakitchi or Lucky Rock, Kinkitchi or Lasting Happi¬ 
ness, and Otokitchi or Happy Sound, with four other shipwrecked 
Japanese, were taken back to Japan, accompanied by Dr. Gutzlaff, 
in the ship Morrison,” but the vessel was fired upon, and they 
were not allowed any communication with the shore. 

In 1849, Dr. Gutzlaff being in this country, the Bible Society 
presented him with 401. toward the printing of portions of the 
New Testament in Japanese, being, as he termed it, a pioneer 
translation,—a version that must still be tested. It does not ap- 



LOOCHOO ISLANDS. 


381 


pear that any opportunity has yet offered for its circulation; hut 
should China be evangelized, we may hope, that, from its shores, 
the gospel would spread to Japan. The Chinese characters were 
formerly used in writing Japanese, and the written language now 
consists of modified and contracted Chinese characters.* The 
two languages are, however, different in their structure and their 
idiom. 


THE LOOCHOO ISLANDS. 

These islands are thirty-six in number, lying 300 miles south 
of Japan, and 600 miles east of China. The largest of them has 
been for seven years the seat of a mission of the Church Mission¬ 
ary Society, the origin and history of which are extremely inte¬ 
resting. Lieutenant Clifford, a naval officer, visited this island in 
1816, on the occasion of Lord Amherst’s embassy to China. Being 
himself, then, as he states, in unbelief, he lost the ojyporfunity 
of making known the truth as it is in Jesus,’’ but when he after¬ 
ward felt the power of Divine truth, he remembered earnestly the 
condition of those poor islanders, and for fifteen years sought the 
means of sending to them the good tidings of the gospel. 

At last, in 1845, there was established the Loochoo Naval Mis¬ 
sion. The missionary appointed was Dr. Bettelheim, a learned 
Jew, but also a devoted Christian; he was master, already, of ten 
languages, and in nine months acquired the Loochooan. He has 
since endured every variety of difficulty and privation imposed 
upon him by the government, (which is all but Japanese in its re¬ 
strictions,) during the work of compiling a grammar and diction¬ 
ary of the language, and the translation of the two Gospels of 
Luke and John, the book of the Acts, and the Epistle to the 
Romans. 

The philanthropic support of the English Government, and the 
sympathizing visit of the Bishop of Victoria, have helped to sus¬ 
tain him, in his most difficult position, of which he, with his 
heroic wife, feels all the importance, and of which he thus writes: 


* Prichard’s “ Kesearches.’ 




382 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


We stand here on the threshold of Japan, cheered by the one 
hope of diffusing the gospel in Loochoo; and through Loochoo to 
Japan,—the la&t kingdom that stands out in proud enmity to the 
Saviour, teeming with millions of human beings, who are liars, 
gamblers, lazy-bodies, full of deceit and ignorance beyond belief. 
Brethren, I entreat you, in the name of an all-merciful Saviour, 
to pity Japan ! Nothing has as yet been done for it, and it re¬ 
quires speedy aid/^ 

We have little room for further details of the sufferings of this 
missionary, or the martyrdom of one of his converts, by confine¬ 
ment in constrained postures, by slow starvation, by beating on 
the head, by squeezing of the feet, performed, too, by his own 
father and mother ! The dark places of the earth are full of 
cruelty,^^ bui the name of Jesus supports the true believer under 
every trial, as it has done poor Satchi-hama, even unto death; and 
his history, with that of his teacher, may be one of those which 
shall arouse Christendom to perform its duty toward Japan and 
toward Loochoo. 

The importance of the Loochooan translation of the Scriptures 
will be seen from the declaration of the Bishop of Victoria, that 
the Loochooan is a mere dialect of the Japanese language, with 
many Chinese terms engrafted upon it. Br. Bettelheim states, 
that the labours of the brethren who have translated the word of 
God into Chinese, are often of very great assistance to him. He 
has preached to, and made himself understood by, Japanese 
sailors visiting the island; while, in his own words, the gold of 
California, and the Atlantic pouring through the Darien canal 
into the Pacific, will cause an immense European and American 
trade, vid Loochoo and Japan, with China, which makes these 
islands of great importance.* 

The journal of Dr. B. must stir every Christian heart to sympa¬ 
thy. He is lodged by the Loochooan government in an idol 
temple; they insist on finding his food, which is often unwhole- 


* For further information concerning the Loochoo Mission, see its 7th Re¬ 
port. 




AUSTRALIA. 


883 


some and insiifiScient; and they surround his house with guards, 
which they continually change, lest he should convert them. He 
has, howevei:, many secret converts, of whom Satchi-hama was 
one. When the people are permitted to listen to his teaching, 
and to read the word of God, which he is preparing for them, 
the truth shall prevail’^—even in Loochoo. 


CHAPTEK IX. 

Jubilee Review continued—Circulation of the Bible in Australia, Borneo, Tahiti, 
Rarotonga, Mangaia, New Zealand, and South Africa—The Bible among 
Mohammedans, in Roman Catholic Countries, in Austria, in Spain and Portu¬ 
gal, in Switzerland and Italy, and in France. 

AUSTRALIA. 

Australia is one of the fields of labour especially contemplated 
by the society in this its Jubilee Year. The Auxiliary Society 
at Sydney was first established in the year 1817, and is stated 
never to have been in more fiourishing circumstances than at the 
present time. The sales of Bibles and Testaments during the 
past year had increased threefold. The following account of its 
anniversary meeting has just been received: ‘‘The interest 
throughout was well sustained; and the brilliant address of the 
Rev. John Beorly told upon the audience with electric power. 
The instant effect was a check for 110^., handed to him on the 
platform, to aid the funds of the auxiliary; and during the even¬ 
ing the intense interest which had been excited was so well sus¬ 
tained by the Rev. W. Gill, and the other speakers, as to induce 
the grand result of 400?. toward the maintenance of colporteurs, 
etc. We have never had such a meeting ! Dr. Ross’s large church, 
was crowded, and every one seemed greatly pleased and interested.” 

The society at Adelaide reports that the immigrants to this land 
of gold are in general well' supplied with the Bible, principally 




884 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


owing to the efforts of the Bible Society at home, and the parting 
gifts of friends. There are auxiliary societies, also, in compara¬ 
tively active operation at Melbourne, Gleelong, Hobart Town, 
Launceston, and other places. By the instrumentality of these 
auxiliaries, upward of 20,000 copies of the Scriptures were put 
in circulation last year, while considerable amounts have been sent 
by them for the general objects of the society. 

MALAYSIA—BORNEO. 

Borneo and its Dajack population are receiving from the British 
and Foreign Bible Society the Dajack New Testament. The Rev. 
A. Hardeland says: The first edition is almost exhausted, and 
so would some few thousand copies more be, if we had them. 
When, some thirteen years back, we, in the name of the Lord 
God, first planted the banner of the cross in this place, not one 
single Dajack was able to read, and for several years no one 
evinced the least desire to learn : their food was the most disgust¬ 
ing reptiles; and their only relief from abject idleness was the 
excitement of hideous devil-festivals, and a greedy desire to pos¬ 
sess human shulls. Oh, how swift were the feet of the idle Da- 
jacks to shed blood I But now many hundreds have learned to 
read fluently, and are provided with New Testaments. There are 
three mission-stations, besides Pulopetak, and at least 1000 
scholars; and the desire after books is very great. We are 
obliged to refuse many applications; the books are well taken care 
of and diligently perused: usually the receiver makes a wooden 
box to contain his treasure, and in this box it accompanies him 
wherever he goes. Whenever they paddle abroad in their arut 
(a trunk of a tree hollowed out) on the broad rivers, the little 
box is seldom absent, and has besides a covering of leaves; and 
if the arut is overturned amid the waves, by a gust of wind, the 
occupant seizes upon his little box, swims with it to the shore, 
and jumps for joy when he finds the book is uninjured.’’ 

Whoever has read of the Dajacks of Borneo, and has imagined 
the large houses in which they reside, by hundreds together, 
whose ornaments are human heads dangling from the ceiling, will 



POLYNESIA-TAHITI. 


885 


rejoice to liear that in such buildings multitudes now sometimes 
listen to the Scripture-reader, or some native Dajack, who reads 
aloud and in a recitative tone of voice, which is their habit. By 
this means the women hear the word of God : they have not yet 
come either to school or to church, but they are noAv accessible to 
instruction in their own houses. When passing, in the evening, 
the banks of the rivers where the villages are built, one hears in 
all directions the voice of the reader resounding to the opposite 
bank. The Bible will soon conquer the mania for human skulls, 
which these savages have been accustomed to string round their 
waists when dancing, putting food in their mouths, and the betel- 
nut between their ghastly lips. 

POLYNESIA—TAHITI. 

The volcanic and coral islands of Polynesia have a history of 
their own, so interesting, that we dare not enter upon it in detail, 
though it richly deserves to be explored. 

Missionary enterprise began in Tahiti, in 1796. For a period 
of sixteen years there was no apparent fruit of devoted labour, 
and the island remained sunk in cruel idolatry. Then came the 
change. Two servants had united for prayer, and these in the 
absence of the missionaries multiplied into a body of praying 
people. From that time success has followed, so that populous 
islands to the distance of 2000 miles in circuit from Tahiti, in 
the bosom of the Pacific, have been brought under the influence 
of Divine truth. In 1820, openings of the most promising kind 
presented themselves for the distribution of the word of God. 
W^e have already contemplated Mr. Williams at work on his 
translation of the Scriptures. In 1820, an edition of 3000 copies 
of Luke’s Gospel was printed in Tahitian; 10,000 copies of the 
book of the Acts and the other Gospels followed : those who were 
taught in the schools instructed, in the cool evenings, the more 
ignorant. In 1824, a further edition circulated in various islands; 
and all this while, and up to 1830, the Nev/ Testament constituted 
their entire library. 


33 



386 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


In 1838, the Old Testament was completed and printed under* 
the superintendence of the Rev, H. Nott, who had landed on the 
island forty years before, as a missionary, from the Duff.^^ These 
books were eagerly purchased, at two dollars each; and those who 
had no money, hurried away to sea with their nets, hoping that the 
proceeds of their fishing would enable them to buy a copy. 

In 1839, the martyr-blood of the missionary Williams stained 
the soil of Erromanga, where he had intended to plant the stand¬ 
ard of the cross. Then came the French protectorate and its 
Roman Catholic power to disturb the religious peace of the islands, 
and to test the infiuence of the large circulation of the word of 
God, which had taken place among them. Still, in 1841, the 
London missionaries write: It is most delightful to see the in¬ 
superable thirst of this people for the Bible. They refuse to take 
their necessary food, if denied the Book, while those who obtain 
it will leap, kiss it for joy, press it to their hearts, and say, ^ Now, 
my eyes will close at night; now, I will try to get one for my 
son.^ 

When the war broke out in 1844, owing to the French aggres¬ 
sion, and the people were obliged to take to the mountains, many 
of them at first carried their Bibles to the missionaries and said. 

Keep these in safety, until we have beaten our foes, and then 
we will ask for them again.But some time afterward they 
returned, saying, We are likely to be long absent from our 
dwellings; give us our Bibles again, for we want them in the 
mountains and though every efibrt has been used to seduce 
them from the simplicity of their faith, their Bibles have caused 
them to stand firm, and we hear of no perverts. 

At the present time, the Parent Society is importuned to print 
10,000 copies of the New Testament for the youth in the schools. 
It appears to be the design of the French local government to 
force the missionaries from the island, that popery may renew its 
efibrts with redoubled energy. Mr. Howe writes in the Report 
of 1853, They have managed at last to close our mouths in 
public in the native tongue. The first link of the popish chain 
has been riveted on the Tahitian nation, and ere long it will be 



TAHITI AND THE PAPISTS. 


387 


made to feel the whole weight of that chain.^^ The entire facts 
of the case are, however, a powerful argument in favour of the 
free circulation of the word of God. The Eomish priests have 
now been in Tahiti between thirteen and fourteen years, and not 
one convert has been fairly made to their system. 

Some t^me since, several Christian natives of Tahiti called on 
one of the missionaries, and related to him a conversation they 
had just had with the Roman Catholic priest. They said he had 
shown them a large tree, with root, trunk, branches, and twigs, 
and explained to them the meaning of it. At the root was a 
lamb, and that, said the priest, meant the Saviour, the Lamb of 
God; and the tree, he said, represented the Roman Catholic 
Church; at the bottom of the trunk, next above the root, was 
Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, next to Jesus,Christ. 

Yes!’^ said the Tahitians; ^^we have read about Peter, we 
have got two letters of his, which we read in our Testament: that 
was the man who denied his Master; but the Saviour looked on 
him, and that look melted his heart, and the Saviour forgave him. 
But who are all these,said they, rising upon the trunk of the 
tree, above Peter 

Ah said the priest, they are the popes, the successors of 
Peter.^^ 

“ Ah! we donH know about them,^^ said the natives; but, 
never mind, we\e got the root! Now what are the straight branches 
that go off from the trunk V’ 

They are the different orders of men in the church,^^ said the 
priest; monks and friars, and so forth.^ 

We don’t know them either,” said the people; but go on ; 
we’ve got the root, so we can do without them. But, pray what 
are these twigs dropping off at -the end of the branches ?” 

Ah ! they are the heretics, falling quick into the flames below.” 

Indeed !” said the Tahitians; then whereabouts are loe 

Ah!” said the priest, you are there,” pointing up to one 
corner; there’s Luther, a decayed twig; he is dropping off, you 
see, into the flames; and that’s where he is, and where you and 
your missionaries will all go, for you are heretics.” 



388 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


well said the astonished Tahitians, such is the pic¬ 
ture, and such is the meaning you give us; but, however, we’ve 
got the root, and so we think we cannot be very far wrong, and 
we mean to keep to that.^’ 

‘‘I am the vine,^' said the ^Saviour, ‘^ye are the branches: 
abide in me. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same 
bringeth forth much fruit. If a man abide not in me, he is cast 
forth as a branch and is withered.^’ John xv. 

RAROTONGA. 

In 1852, it was mentioned that 5000 copies of the whole Bible, 
in the Rarotongan language, had been sent off by the missionary 
ship, the John Williams.” The missionary who had superin¬ 
tended its passage through the press, in England, the Rev. A. 
Buzacott, returned with it. The account of his voyage and of 
his reception has lately been made public. He says,— 

I cannot well describe the reception we ' met with, when we 
arrived at our beloved island home. As soon as we approached 
the shore, a simultaneous rush was made for the boat. The crew 
jumped out, and we soon found ourselves, boat and all, upon the 
shoulders of the people. Eight of us were thus borne away 
toward our house, where they put us down. They crowded 
round us,—the men shouting for joy, and the women weeping 
for the same cause. They were very anxious to get possession 
of the Bibles. On the appointed day, the case being opened 
which contained them, we offered prayer and thanksgiving, and 
gave them a short account of the British and Foreign Bible So¬ 
ciety. The chiefs were each of them presented with a copy in 
superior binding, then those who had deposited pui'chase-money 
received theirs. All were soon gone. To the students in the 
college, the arrival is invaluable, as they never had the complete 
Scriptures in their hands before.” 

MANGAIA. 

The Rev. G-. Gill says: We have received here 1340 copies, 
which had been long expected. Those who had paid for them 



MANGAIA. 


389 


beforehand said, ^ Perhaps Barakoti* is dead; the society cannot 
finish it, and our hopes will be disappointed. But when the 
vessel hove in sight, their joy was unbounded. They dragged 
with delight the heavy packages over the reef of coral,*!* for they 
knew that the Bibles had come. It is their custom, when en¬ 
gaged in drawing or carrying heavy burdens, to encourage one 
another by'the voice of song. As they brought the case into 
the mission-house, they sang in their own language— 

“ ‘ The word has oome! One volume complete ! 

Let us learn the good word! Our joy is great! 

The whole word has come; the whole word has come!' 


^^The day the Bibles were distributed, we received 10?. for 
them, and before the week’s end, 40?. 

^^At our usual missionary prayer-meeting, an old man, whose 
remarks ofter cheer my own spirit, arose and addressed us from 
•Job V. 16-19. He said, ^ I have often spoken to you from a text 
out of other parts of the Bible which we had, but this is the first 
time we have seen the book of Job. It is a new book to us. 
When I received my Bible,’ continued he, ‘ I never slept until I 
had finished this new book of Job. I read it all. Oh ! what joy 
I felt in reading his wonderful life ! Let us all read the whole 
book. Let us go to the missionary by day and by night, and in¬ 
quire into the meaning of the new parts which we have not read. 
Let us be at his door when he rises. Let us stop him when we 
meet him, that he may tell us of these new books.’ And liftiiig 
up his new Bible before the congregation, with the excited energy 
of a feeble old man, he said, ‘ My brethren and sisters, this is 
my resolve: the dust shall never cover my new Bible; the moths 
shall never eat it; the mildew shall not mt it; my light! my 

joy!’” 


Mr. Buzacott, . 

f Mr. Williams beautifully describes this reef in his ^‘Missionary Enter¬ 
prises,” p. 24. It is a barrier which belts the island against the long, rolling 
waves of the Pacific, within which the waters flow, clear and transparent, over 
corals of eyery fonn and hue. 


33* 




390 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


One more extract, and we must leave these lovely coral isles. 
The Kev. A. W. Murray, from Samoa, one of the Navigator’s 
Isles, writes: ^^The diffusion of Scripture light, always im¬ 
portant, is especially so at the present time, when the powers of 
darkness are pursuing with such restless and wide-spread activity 
their efforts to perpetuate their dreary reign. The Romish bishop 
of Oceanica, as he is styled, has lately taken up his abode in 
Samoa, and intends, it is reported, fixing his head-quarters here 
for the future. The papists have not as yet made much progress 
in Samoa, nor throughout Polynesia, and it is probable they will 
not make very much. We have got the start of them: the 
ground is pre-occupied by an element more than all others de¬ 
structive to popery—light, light from heaven !” 

From the Fee-jee islands, which are wholly occupied by the 
Wesleyan missionaries, the reports are similar. A grant of 5000 
New Testaments in the Fee-jee language has been made to them; 
and the sacred Scriptures are declared to be highly prized, while 
popery is there likewise seeking to pervert the poor heathen to 
its own superstitions. It tries to persuade them that they cannot 
understand the word of God when they read it. But they do 
understand it, and prize it above rubies.^’ 

NEW ZEALAND. 

The missionaries of the Church Missionary Society are pursu¬ 
ing the same work of evangelization among the leafy glens and 
mountains, the lovely lakes and rocky islets of New Zealand, 
where for thirty-four years they have perseveringly laboured and 
translated the Scriptures : they have there 315 native catechists 
and teachers. The Wesleyan missionaries have also laboured 
with great diligence and considerable success in this distant field. 
The New Zealander, even in his ignorance and dirt, used to be 
called the prince of savagesbut now that he has been civi¬ 
lized by Christianity, his race will probably become the most 
powerful, as it is the most enterprising, of all of the aboriginal 
tribes of the South Seas. In 1852, 15,000 copies of the New 
Testament in the Maori language were prepared by the British 



SOUTH AFRICA. 


391 


and Foreign Bible Society for these natives, who call the hook of 
Psalms, ^^the David.^^ Even the yet wild tribes among them 
had respect to the Scriptures as the word of God,^^ while they 
tore up the Encyclopedia Britannica'^ for cartridge-paper during 
the last war. In New Zealand, also, the Homan Catholic priests 
are equal in number to the Protestant missionaries; but the 
Bible among the people proves to be their constant hinderance. 
When they urge upon the New Zealander the elevation of the 
host, the belief in purgatory, the adoration of the Virgin, or the 
duty of confession to the priest, his simple answer is, I do not 
find it in my Book.^^ Altogether 96,220 portions of the word 
of God have been diffused among a population of 150,000 na¬ 
tives, among whom cannibalism has now ceased. 

To complete our survey of the heathen, we must turn again to— 

SOUTH AFRICA. 

In 1821, the South African Auxiliary Bible Society was 
formed; and, through Dr. Philip, supplies of the Scriptures 
were continually made to the different missionary stations. In 
1801, not a Hottentot throughout the Cape Colony would have 
been found able to read; but now readers are found and Bibles 
are desired in every village. In 1846, Mr. Bourne, one of the 
valuable agents of the society, visited the colony, with ia supply 
of 20,000 copies of Dutch and English Scriptures. His travels 
in Africa extended to more than 3000 miles, and to many who 
were. destitute of the Scriptures, grants were liberally made. 
The Bible is especially needed among colonists, who, from their 
scattered position, have no means of attending the public worship 
of God, for months together. Since the return of Mr. Bourne, 
20,000 more copies have been forwarded, though the long and 
disastrous Caffre war has thrown great impediments in the way 
of their distribution. 

The Bechuanas, whose number is calculated at something like 
30,000 people, are spread over a large portion of Southern and 
Central Africa. In this region the Rev. Robert Moffat has la¬ 
boured since 1817 : his version of the New Testament was pub- 



392 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


lished by tbe society in 1841. It was received by the natives 
with eager gratitude: the Old Testament is gradually completing. 
Mr. Moffat, in the midst of his work, writes to congratulate the 
Bible Society on its perseverance in its noble enterprise of giv¬ 
ing the Book of books—Grod’s Book of life—to a sick and dying 
world and he says, after thirty-six years of missionary expe¬ 
rience, How littlej how insignificant, are all other enterprises com¬ 
pared with this !” He speaks of the Bible as garnishing dens 
and caves of the earth with heavenly delights, even unto this 
day’^; and he 'adds that the Bechuana translation of the Old 
Testament would progress at less tortoise speed, but for the claims 
of other kinds of missionary labour, besides translation.^' 

And now, let us see what allusions are made in the Report of 
1853, as to the progress of the Bible among the Mohammedans. 

MOHAMMEDANS. 

In 1853, from Harass, in Tartary, Mr. Galloway, a Scottish mis¬ 
sionary, writes: “ The Mohammedans are peculiarly prejudiced 
against the gospel of the grace of God; yet it is encouraging to 
see, that the more they come in contact with the word of truth, 
the more their prejudices are weakened. We cannot speak of 
many conversions among them, but they can now hear the Bible 
read or quoted with some degree of patience. They do not throw 
the Book out of their hands as they once did, or cut out passages 
obnoxious to them, or burn it, as they used to do." 

In the year 1844, from Penang, the Rev. T. Beighton writes; 

I never saw such a spirit of inquiry excited among the Moham¬ 
medans as at present. When the truth of our Lord's Divinity is 
established among them, their delusion will receive a heavy blow. 
Now that the word of God has been extensively made known in 
countries where Mohammedans are mixed with the population, and 
its sound is still going forth, they are often led calmly to compare 
the lies of their prophet with the truth of the gospel, and to strike 
the balance in favour of the Divine Scriptures. 

The population of Constantinople and its environs is estimated 
at a million at least; the proportions are considered to be correctly 



MOHAMMEDANS—AUSTRIA. 


393 


given as follows : Turks, 520,000; Greeks, 200,000; Armenians, 
180,000; Jews, 70,000; Europeans, 30,000. Among them a 
goodly number of missionaries are labouring diligently and faith- 
fully,—eight from the American board, and six from England and 
Scotland. These servants of our common Lord are working toge¬ 
ther for the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom 
of Christ in the world, ^esteeming each other in love.^ They all 
distribute the Scriptures by the aid of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society, and have all adopted more or less the system of 
colportage. They speak of an increased and increasing call for 
the word of God.'^ 

It would be easy to multiply individual instances of renuncia¬ 
tion of the Mohammedan faith : but we have no space for them. 
The friends of the Bible may rejoice in its silent and gradual in¬ 
fluence over followers of the false prophet, and pass on with us to 
the reconsideration of our third division,—the work which our 
Scriptures are performing among the Roman and Greek Churches 
of the world. 


AUSTRIA. 

There is no doubt that, in this country, the wide distribution 
of the word of God has excited a great reaction,—a reaction of 
hostility, especially in the countries ruled by despotic power. 
Despotism and popery clasp hands and work together, and one is 
able to stir up the other to shut out the Bible from its territories, 
even in the midst of this nineteenth century. Light is come 
into the world; but men love darkness rather than light, because 
their deeds are evil;’' and hence such scenes as are alluded to in 
the Report for 1853, in the countries of Austria and Hungary, 
when the government, demanding to have all tlie Scriptures in 
the depots at Giins, Pesth, and Vienna, sent out of the country^ 
the decree was rigorously enforced. Two hundred and four bales 
and 125 cases, containing 58,087 copies of Bibles and Testaments, 
either bound or in sheets, were conveyed beyond the frontiers of 
the Austrian territory, under the charge of a detachment of gens 
d’armes. This took place amid the unavailing tears and sighs 



394 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


of tens of thousands of the people, waiting for and anxious to 
possess the precious volumes of which they were so mercilessly 
bereft. 

In 1852, it was thus recorded of these countries: Multitudes 
are now in possession of the Scriptures, who, only a short time 
since, scarcely knew that God had spoken in times past unto the 
fathers by the prophets, and in these last days unto us by his 
Son.^' In some parts the desire for the word is described as a 
^^rage,^^ and a famishing and the priests of Rome, becoming 
aware of this, denounced the Books from the pulpit. The govern¬ 
ment then insisted that they should be withdrawn from the country. 

Mr. Millard, the agent of the society, now writes: ^^We have 
at last left that fruitful and promising field of labour, glad 
enough, as far as our persons are concerned, to get out of the 
clutches of our foes; but it is distressing to think of the state 
of the people we have left behind. What has been done is but 
a sprinkling, which has but served to inform or remind the 
people that there is such a thing as Giving water;' and had 
not the arm of force interfered, and been tolerated by a Pro¬ 
vidence whose ways are past finding out, the circulation of the 
Scriptures would have increased far beyond our provision for 
it. Whenever my thoughts return to that wretched country, I can¬ 
not help again and again thanking God for what has been effected 
before the interdict, and looking back with gratitude on the number 
of 41,659 volumes distributed since the 1st of October, 1850." 

.SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 

Spain and Portugal, we regret to state, are completely barred 
against the Bible. A concordat has been concluded betwen the 
courts of Spain and Rome; the power of the priesthood is para¬ 
mount; every book introduced into the schools must receive their 
approval, and they do not approve of the free use of the Bible. 
In 1828, 1829, and 1830, there was some circulation of the Scrip¬ 
tures. Messrs. Courtois, banlters of Toulouse,* introduced them 


-Where, in 1229, the Bible was prohibited. See page 1.33. 





SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 


395 


into those countries by means of soldiers and pedlars passing 
through Toulouse. In 1835, when the cholera drove many of the 
higher classes of Spaniards to Toulouse and the towns of the south 
of France, these same Christian friends introduced the Bible, 
wherever possible, to their notice : and in 1836, by colporteurs 
in the Pyrenees, and by visits to Spanish prisoners, they persevered 
in their efforts. Two other friends who visited Madrid were fa¬ 
voured with some measure of influence and success; so that, in 
1837, at Barcelona, 1600 Spanish Testaments were sold; and in 
one instance the simple perusal of the Scriptures was the means 
of imparting the knowledge of salvation. In 1838, notwithstand¬ 
ing all the confusion and misery that reigned in the country, the 
Holy Scriptures gained a silent entrance, and were openly bought 
and sold' in several of the principal towns. Between 5000 and 

6000 copies were disposed of. From B-, the gentleman to 

whom the society intrusted the work thus wrote : The expres¬ 
sions of gratitude for the Books are innumerable. It is said, 
^ The words and the history of the crucified Saviour and of his 
followers are most interesting to us. We were altogether ignorant 
of such a Book, and itdfelights us.^ The higher orders kept aloof, 
and but few came for a copy; but workmen,—masons, shoemakers, 
carpenters, tailors,—streamed almost in a continued file to pur¬ 
chase the good Book.^^ 

From V-, he writes: ^^In six days I sold here 400 copies. 

How often do I wish I had wings, that I might be able to avail 
myself of the extraordinary disposition of the people to purchase 
the blessed Book 

In an ancient Moorish city, the same gentleman disposed of 
369 copies: many were sold to the priests. As he walked along 
the streets of the towns where the Bible had been thus distributed, 
he could perceive shopkeepers and others reading their copies. 
Sometimes he entered into conversation with them, which ended 
in tears rolling down their cheeks. 

Another ardent and enterprising friend of the society, having 
carried through the press at Madrid an edition of 5000 copies of 
the New Testament, spent five months of the year 1838 in 





896 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


travelling througli the provinces, to bring the Books into circula¬ 
tion. He then returned to Madrid, and opened a room for the 
sale of the Scriptures, which, after a short time, was closed by 
the authorities. While it remained open, many were sold. He 
also printed at Madrid a translation of the Gospel of Luke, in the 
Gitano or Gipsy language, for the benefit of this interesting, 
singular, but degraded race of people, who are very numerous in 
some parts of Spain. 

In 1839, the door seems to have closed, and this unhappy 
country has added to its other calamities, and its responsibility, 
the almost total suppression of the efforts to circulate within its 
borders the precious word of God; not, however, before 16,000 
copies of the Scriptures had been scattered through its plains and 
valleys, during a space of five years. 

SWITZERLAND AND NORTH ITALY. 

In 1845, Lieutenant Graydon, who had rendered such essential 
service in Spain, continued his labours in Switzerland. His 
baggage-van was fitted up after his own model, and so conveniently 
arranged that he could with ease turn it into a regular book-stall. 
He presented himself at large fairs and markets, and extraordi¬ 
nary success attended his operations. At Berne, in four days, 
he sold 1200 copies; at Lausanne, 1667 copies: 25,694 copies 
were purchased in the course of three years, and very many of 
them by Homan Catholics. They were dispersed in five lan¬ 
guages, and 4000 of them were sold in the Hotel Gibbon, 
which is built on the very ground so often paced by the cele¬ 
brated author of the Beeline and Fall of the Homan Em- 
pire,^^—one who used his great talents to undermine the faith 
of thousands in the truth of revelation, and sought to trace to 
Christianity, as a source, every evil that has disfigured the world 
since its introduction. 

In 1849, after visiting his depots in Switzerland, Lieutenant 
Graydon passed to Milan and Turin at the time of the revolution 
there. It was with difiiculty he could secure a corner in the 
newspaper for tke announcement of his peaceful mission. The 



NORTH ITALY—FRANCE. 


897 


authorities, however, did not interfere, and the people received 
him with courtesy. The result of the two visits he paid to the 
north of Italy was the sale of 12,000 copies. 

In Tuscany, when the archduke was restored, in 1849, and 
the Church of Rome resumed its former ascendency, one of the 
earliest acts of the government was to seize and lock up the edition 
of Martini’s Testament, just issued at Florence, stop the presses, 
carry off the type and paper, subject the printers to a civil process, 
and banish Captain Pakenhamj who had superintended the work, 
at a few days’ notice. From the time that the pope returned from 
his exile, every impediment has been thrown in the way of the 
Bible Society in Lombardy, Tuscany, and the Papal States. The 
imprisonment of the Madiai and many others, the search for the 
Scriptures in private houses, the forcible attempt to check the 
expression of opinion, and the mandates of excommunication 
against those who shall enter a Protestant place of worship, or 
abet a society in circulating the Scriptures, all indicate that Rome 
is her old self. The Book condemns her, and she tries to hide it. 
We cannot but rejoice in the fact that more than 87,000 copies 
have been distributed in various ways, even in Italy, and that the 
desire for the sacred volume is increasing continually. 

FRANCE. 

Of France, so much has been said in former chapters, that but 
little remains to be added. The British and Foreign Bible 
Society looks upon her with the deepest interest, places her 
always first in its Reports, and watches with increasing anxiety 
over her zealous band of colporteurs. 

On the table of the committee-room in Earl-street, now stands 
a vase of artificial flowers, composed of small coloured beads. 
You would be surprised to hear of such an ornament in such a 
place; but that vase has a history. It is a Jubilee token from 
France, and has very recently arrived. The donors, who wish 
to remain unknown, are French soldiers, belonging to various 
regiments which successively have formed the garrison of a certain 
town. This bouquet of gratitude,” as it is called, has been 



398 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


prepared, during many evenings of several winters, by- skilful 
hands, in successive regiments, while listening to the read¬ 
ing of the Scriptures and religious hooks; and when finished, 
the makers were very desirous of presenting it as an offering 
to the British and Foreign Bible Society, in token of their 
lively gratitude for its having placed within their reach the word 
of Grod, to which they have had grace given them to surrender 
their hearts. 

The society’s agent. Monsieur de P., has issued from the 
depot in Paris, from April, 1833, to January, 1853, no fewer than 
2,271,709 copies of the Scriptures! This is the work of twenty 
years. 

The whole issues since the dep5t was established are 3,002,359 
copies, more than three-fourths of which have been placed in the 
hands of Boman Catholics; and a million and a half of these have 
been circulated by colporteurs. The prayers of the Huguenots 
are in a great measure answered. There is not a single depart¬ 
ment in France, (and, indeed, very few of the parishes in those 
departments,) which has not been visited by these humble and 
devoted agents. The remotest comers of her country districts 
have now heard of the Bible, and know that the Book contains 
the words of God. Extensive religious movements have taken 
place in some provinces. Protestant church has just been 
formed at Alengon, the rise of which is owing to the distri¬ 
bution of the Sacred Scriptures, effected by a colporteur. On 
Sunday, the 24th of September, 1853, the first service was held, 
in presence of 400 persons. The prayers, the solemn reading 
of the Bible, the sermon, and the well-executed singing of several 
hymns, produced a deep and powerful impression on the whole 
of the audience. 

Among these new disciples of the gospel, about twenty were 
pointed out, who, in the most boisterous weather, had come a 
distance of nearly seven leagues, in order to be present at a cere¬ 
mony which, for them, was no mere outward form. Seventeen 
of these worthy peasants had come in carts, having for several 
days previously saved, sous by sous from, their necessary expentU- 



PROTESTANT CHURCH AT ALEN§ON. 


399 


lure, the trifling sum which they required for the journey. The 
three others—two men and one woman (persons earning abso¬ 
lutely no more than their daily bread —an expression to be 
understood literally,) and one of the men carrying a Bible, in 
8vo, well wrapped up, under his arm—had started on their jour¬ 
ney at four o’clock in the morning, amid torrents of rain, in 
order to accomplish the journey of seven leagues in proper time;— 
a journey which they retraced in the evening, setting out at half¬ 
past nine, and in weather, if any thing, worse than that of the 
morning. We were truly and deeply humbled at witnessing this 
proof of zeal and love for the things of God. As for these good 
people themselves, they thought nothing of the matter : ^ We so 
greatly love the Bible,’ said they, ^ that, to hear it spoken about, 
we would willingly go much farther still.’ 

At three o’clock in the afternoon there was another service, 
which attracted a much greater audience than was even the case 
in the morning. This service was held for the purpose of baptiz¬ 
ing two infants, brought by two families belonging to the new 
members of the Alen§on flock ) after that, the Lord’s Supper was 
partaken of by the Christian friends who had come from a dis¬ 
tance, by Mr. Audebez and his large family, as well as, to our 
great joy, by ten converts—by ten new Christians, and who had 
become such since they had received the Bible from the hands of 
your colporteur. 

These two celebrations produced the greatest impression on 
the numerous persons who witnessed them, and who, during the 
whole time, were standing in a dense throng, and throughout the 
whole preserved the greatest silence. On going away, several 
among the crowd were heard to remark : ^ They communicate, as 
we are taught in the gospel that Jesus Christ communicated with 
his disciples.’ ^ Theirs is a true religion.’ ‘ One can understand 
all they preach about.’ ^ They seem to be happy, and to love each 
other as brethren.’ ‘ This is the worship which we shall in future 
attend.’ And, as if to show that these expressions were sincere, 
sixty persons purchased copies of the Scriptures between the 
Saturday and Monday evening. 



400 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Who will venture, after such a fact, to utter a doubt as to the 
positive and blessed results of the work of Bible colportage ? 

This, then, is the moment, the fitting moment, to spread over 
the country, in increased numbers, the distributors of the sacred 
Scriptures; this is the moment to~pray, with renewed fervour, 
that God may graciously accompany their efforts with his abundant 
blessing.’^ 

BELGIUM. ' 

It is in the Report for 1837 that special notice is first taken of 
the successful labours and unwearied zeal of Mr. W. P. Tiddy, 
the society’s agent in Belgium, who, with the colporteurs under 
his c6ntrol, sold, iff little more than the space of one year, 8420 
volumes of Scripture, the greater part being Testaments, which, 
however, he says, induce afterward the desire for Bibles. These 
were sold in the French, English, Flemish, German, Butch, Por¬ 
tuguese, Polish, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Swedish, Banish, and 
Hebrew languages,' and showed an amazing increase of demand 
for the Scriptures through the steady employment of the system 
of colportage. The agents went through all the towns, left them 
for a few months, and then commenced again. We know not 
where to select from Mr. Tiddy’s Reports for Belgium, any more 
than from Monsieur de P.’s for France; for they would form 
altogether volumes of unspeakable interest, and would now com¬ 
prise a series of facts extending over many years. We must give 
two or three. / 

From Bour, Mr. Tiddy writes: I know not how to describe 
to you the delightful prospect before us in this neighbourhood, or 
the wonderful effects of the distribution of the Sacred Scriptures 
here. Walking one day with M. de Visme, he exclaimed, ^It is 
the Bible that fills- my church; it is the Bible that brings the 
people to hear the preached gospel; it is the Bible that brings 
the people to me to ask about their souls. / nevei' hear any thing 
of them, till they have somewhere read the Bihle’ This depart¬ 
ment has been well visited for years past, and still the Books find 
a ready sale.” 



BELGIUM. 


401 


We ought to have noticed in the account of the society’s library, 
a Bible presented by Mr.. Tiddy—a Bible which ten or twelve 
persons in Dour had subscribed for together, and which had been 
purchased in Holland, where it cost thirty-two francs. It is an 
edition of Ostervald, and the contrast in the present price of a 
Bible is a strong proof of the advantages of Bible Societies. 

Some one Bible in a village, thus procured at great cost, once 
excited the rage of some priests; for it was known to them that 
such existed ; but they could never find it, though many a search 
was made for it. The persons to whom it belonged used to hide 
it away by day, and by night go into the woods with it, and there 
hang a lantern up to a tree, and read it. 

At other times they would agree to meet in some old burrow, 
or other sacred place, for the same purpose. They sang also the 
Psalms of David to song-tunes, to deceive those who might over¬ 
hear them. One day when the men were absent at their work, 
and the women gone to the next market-town, a general search 
was made—for the priests were always on the watch to see when 
the house which contained it was left without any one but the 
child or some young person. They made a regular search, but, 
like all others up to that moment, in vain, and the priests and 
police turned to go their houses; but on their way back, one of 
the policemen said, I am sure, if we go back to such a house 
(naming it,) we shall find the Bible. I observed that in that 
house the child was in the cradle; and, whether it was asleep or 
awake, the girl sitting by it continually rocked it.” 

Arrived at the house, they went direct to the cradle, took up the 
child, turned out the bed, and found the Bible. The little girl 
who watched it was only ten years old, and she burst into tears; 
but they rejoiced over their success, and walked away in triumph. 

The poor villagers wept when they came home in the evening, 
and said they would rather have heard that their houses had been 
burned to the ground than that their Bible should have been taken 
from them. They tried to get it again, but that was impossible. 
Alas ! for the poor solitary Bible, and blessings on the era of Bible 
Societies! 


34* 



402 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


In ,tlie year 1838, tlie work of circulating tke Scriptures in 
Belgium still further assumed an unlooked-for extent and import¬ 
ance. The committee could only exclaim : This is the Lord’s 
doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes !” The issue of 8420 
volumes in a year had now increased to 20,548 volumes, 17,000 
of which had been circulated by the brave colporteurs, persevering 
in their peaceful, self-denying labours, though in the midst of 
reproaches, insults, and threatenings. Their books have often 
been stolen, forced away, torn, and burned before their eyes; but 
through evil report and through good report,” they have held on 
their way, sometimes owing their personal safety to the interfe¬ 
rence of the civil powers, and at other times to military authority. 

They have had to contend with the potent opposition of all the 
patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops of the Boman 
Catholic Church, who were thus addressed by Pope Leo XII., 
true to the principles of his ancient system, in his encyclical letter 
of 1824, given at Borne in the first year of his pontificate: 

^^You are aware, venerable brethren, that a certain society, 
called the Bible Society, strolls with effrontery through the world; 
which society, contemning the traditions of the holy fathers, and 
contrary to the well-known decree of the council of Trent, labours 
with all its might, and by every means, to translate, or rather to 
pervert the Holy Scriptures into the vulgar language of every 
nation; from which proceeding it is greatly to be feared that, by 
a perverse interpretation, the gospel of Christ may be turned into 
a human gospel; or, what is worse, the gospel of the devil. To 
avert this plague, our predecessors published many ordinances, 
and proofs collected from the Holy Scriptures and tradition, to 
show how noxious this most wicked novelty is to faith and morals. 

^^We exhort you, therefore, by all means to turn away your 
flocks from these poisonous pastures, being persuaded that if the 
Scriptures be everywhere indiscriminately published, more evil 
than advantage will arise on account of the rashness of men,” &c. 

On such documents, the Bible Society refrain from making 
any comment. They will rather indulge in silent grief, that the 
simple object of the society should be so misunderstood and mis- 



COLPORTAGE IN BELGIUM. 


403 


represented, and that there should be found men who, from what-' 
ever motives, thinh it right to interpose between God^s own word 
and the creatures to whom it is given.” 

During 1839, Mr. Tiddy employed seven colporteurs, who fre¬ 
quently visited with good effect the same places two or three 
times; and it is inspiring to read his communications given in 
the Monthly Extracts. We have certainly much to rejoice over, 
when we think that there are upward of 50,000 copies of the 
sacred Scriptures abroad in this land. They must bear fruit; 
^‘and the time will come, when these 50,000 talents will bring in 
other 50,000 talents, and for Bibles we shall have souls.^^ 

Mr. Tiddy mentions, that a celebrated Jesuit preacher insisted 
very much on our having stolen the Bible from the Roman 
Catholic Church; that we have no claim to it, that we have lost 
all right to it; and that Luther stole it out of the convent. 
was sorry I could not tell him that we wished to follow or even 
outdo Zaccheus, the chief among the publicans, who offered to 
restore fourfold what he had taken, and that we wished to restore 
the Bible to them a hundred-thousandfold.^^ 

In the year 1844, Mr. Joseph John Gurney, a devoted mem¬ 
ber of the Bible Society, and one of the Society of Friends, who 
is now no more, had been travelling in France, Germany, Prussia, 
and Belgium; and, observing the state of men’s minds with regard 
to the Bible, he thought they might be divided into three great 
classes : first, a powerful, insidious, and learned class, endeavour¬ 
ing with all their might to destroy the foundations of Christianity, 
many of them professors of universities, turning all the miracles 
of the New Testament into mere natural circumstances, speaking 
even of the Divinity of a Christ as a sort of ornament, and poison¬ 
ing the minds of tens of thousands of ingenuous youth by their 
dangerous suggestions, talcing away from the things that are 
written in the Booka second class he beheld, yet larger and 
more powerful, but distinguished by ignorance rather than learning, 
adding gross and childish superstitions, such ceremonies as crown¬ 
ing the statues of the Virgin Mary, and other gilded rubbish, 
to the things that were written in the Book,” and de.sirous to 



404 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


abridge the religious liberty of a third class, whom he found a 
little party, a small but increasing proportion, including all classes, 
from some of the royal families down to the peasantry, showing 
themselves on the side of simple Christian truth, adopting the 
Book of revelation as their guide, and using all their influence 
widely to distribute it. Mr. Gurney avowed his conviction that 
this third party is growing stronger and stronger on the continent, 
and that the circulation of Be Sacy's version is daily increasing 
it. He bears testimony to Monsieur de P.^s unwearied zeal, in 
having distributed 140,000 copies during the previous year. He 
says, There is a spiritual life arising in France at this time, 
which all the efibrts of all the popes and cardinals in Christen¬ 
dom will not be able to put down. In Belgium, the agent of the 
Bible Society is quietly distributing a thousand copies of the 
Scriptures every month. It is all in preparation for the vast 
struggle coming on between the powers of light and darkness; 
and the Scriptures,^^ continues Mr. Gurney, ^^are being ready as 
well as distributed, and many are determined to abide by them, 
come what may 

Ten years have passed since then, and the same process has 
been going on between the same parties. Mr. Tiddy has been at 
work for eighteen years in Belgium; and he still says of the 
Bibles and Testaments circulated by his colporteurs there, (now 
nearly 200,000 volumes,) What are these among so many 

In Cologne also, and the Bhenish provinces, he has, since the 
year 1847, circulated 273,503 copies, and he still believes that 
<^for these Bibles we shall have souls.^^ 



CHAPTER X. 


The Old Fountain restored in Assyria—The Nestorian Church—American Mis¬ 
sions—Dr. Layard’s Testimony—The Armenians, the Coptic, the Abyssinian, 
and the Waldensian Churches—The Jews—Jerusalem—Nazareth. 

Our fourth division is again the work of the Bible Society, as 
reviewed (very briefly) from this Jubilee Year among the Jews 
and ancient Christian churches. There is certainly no depart¬ 
ment of its labours so worthy of being singled out and noticed. 

Mr. (now Dr.) Layard, in his recent researches among the rock- 
sculptures at Bavian,* discovered remains and foundations in well- 
hewn stone buried under the mud of the river Gomel. He also 
on removing the earth found a series of basins cut in the rock, 
and descending in steps to the stream. The water had been 
originally led from one to the other through conduits, which of 
course were choked up; but he and his Arabs cleared them, and 
by pouring water into the upper basin restored the fountain as it 
had been in the time of the Assyrians. This is just what the 
Bible Society is doing with the water of life.^^ It has cleared 
the old conduits, and the refreshing stream through its means is 
once more fertilizing the ancient churches. 

We have noticed the return of the light of truth to long un¬ 
happy Ireland, and by the very means that Mr. Charles of Bala 
recommended,—the Scriptures in her native tongue,—once the 
tongue of literature and science.’^ 

The revisitation of the ancient missions of the Nestorians in 
China, has also been treated of under the head of Heathen 
Countries.^^ We must now look upon— ’ 

THE NESTORIAN CHURCH. 

In its native seats, by the help of some interesting details from 
American missionaries, who have laboured among them since the 


See “ Discoveries at Nineveh and Babylon,” p. 215. 

405 




406 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


year 1834, and also through the means of some information from 
Layard. The Rev. D. Stoddard says: 

^^In the north of Persia, at the base of lofty mountains, whose 
snows glitter in the sun, is a plain of great extent and uncommon 
beauty. This is the province of Oroomiah, the home of the 
Nestorian Christians. Let the reader stand with me on the flat- 
terraced roof of our mission-house on Mount Seir. We are 1000 
feet above the plain, which lies stretched before us in all its 
beauty, forty miles in length, girt about with rugged mountains, 
dotted with hundreds of villages, verdant with foliage, and re¬ 
joicing in its thousand flelds of golden grain. Beyond the plain 
is the lake of Oroomiah, studded with islands. Mounds of ashes, 
with a scanty soil on them, conspicuous in different parts of the 
plain, have been supposed to be the places where the sacred fire 
was ever kept burning, and where the Parsee priests bowed in 
adoration to the rising sun. 

^^The Nestorians are a people interesting from their language,— 
the Syriac,—closely akin to the Hebrew, and spoken many cen¬ 
turies before the birth of Christ,—a language nearly identical 
with what was commonly used in Palestine in the days of our 
Saviour, and the medium through which he conversed with his 
disciples, and instructed the people; and it was in this same lan¬ 
guage, that, in his dying agony, he cried with a loud voice, say¬ 
ing, ^ Eloi! Eloi! lama sabachthani V ^ My God! my God! why 
hast thou forsaken me?^ 

^^The power of Mohammed hunted down the Nestorians like 
defenceless sheep, in the midst of their missionary enterprises. 
Presented with the dreadful alternative of Ghe Koran or the 
sword,^ they melted away at last like the snows of spring; and 
for centuries they have been sunk in ignorance and superstition. 
The modern remnant of this ancient and venerable church con¬ 
sists of about 100,000 souls, nearly half of them residing in the 
plains of Oroomiah, and the rest scattered over the wild and rug¬ 
ged ranges of the Kurdish Mountains,—the districts of Tekhoma 
and Tiyari. 

^^They are a good-looking people, not having the peculiar 



THE NESTORTAN CHURCH. 


407 


physiognomy of the Jews, from whom, however, some consider 
them descended,—inquisitive, and unwearied in acquiring know¬ 
ledge. ^We thank you,^ ^We thank you,^ is uttered by many 
voices, after any religious teaching. In the midst of the deep 
corruption of their church, they have been kept far nearer the 
Bible standard than the Roman Catholic, Greek, or Armenian 
Churches. I never met with a Nestorian who denied the supreme 
authority of God’s word. Image and picture worship they hold 
in abhorrence, also auricular confession and priestly absolution. 
They have no mass or worship of the host. They do not refuse 
the cup to any communicant. They reject the doctrines of bap¬ 
tismal regeneration, of penance, and of purgatory, as unscriptural 
and wrong; and they are extremely liberal in their feelings toward 
all those with whom they are ^one in Christ Jesus.’ They have 
always welcomed the American brethren, and granted their 
churches to us for the preaching of the gospel. Mr. S., one of 
our number, was ordained by us, in an old Nestorian church. 
Their own organization is episcopal; yet bishops, priests, and 
deacons, all stood by, and witnessed this ceremony with evident 
gratification. It must be added, that, during our long residence 
here, we have laboured with the sole object of spreading Bible- 
truth, and bringing the people back to an humble, holy life, and 
have studiously avoided any mere sectarian efforts. 

^^Br. Perkins, the pioneer of our mission, found this ancient 
church prostrate in the dust. The people were grossly ignorant. 
They had no schools, and not half-a-dozen readers in a whole 
village. All their books were in manuscript, and of course 
scarce, and sold at a high price. Stealing was prevalent,—lying 
inwrought into all their habits. They used to say, ^We all lie, 
here. Do you think our business would prosper and we not lie V 
Wine circulated like water; and, with many features of ortho¬ 
doxy, religion was a thing of form and outside show. Now there 
are seventy village-schools, and two seminaries for training up 
young men and women to go forth and repair the wastes of many 
generations. The sacred fire is kindled once more upon their 
venerable altars. The Holy Scriptures are now happily com- 



408 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


pleted in both the ancient and modern language of the Nesto- 
rians. The contents of their own rare, ancient, Syriac manu¬ 
scripts have been returned to them in a printed forin. Their 
own clergy have aided us in the translation of separate portions; 
and I shall never forget their emotion when we had first trans¬ 
lated the Lord’s Prayer. The Nestorian ecclesiastics who were 
with me were interested and delighted above measure at the first 
sight of their language in a written form. They would read a 
line, and then laugh audibly with satisfaction. We copied many 
portions, on cards, of the British and Foreign Bible Society’s 
editions of the Scriptures in the ancient language, till the arrival 
of our press in 1840. 

^^This was an event of great interest and joy. As I carried 
the proof-sheet of our first small book, composed of portions of 
the Scriptures, into my study for correction, and laid it upon the 
table before my translators, they were struck with mute astonish¬ 
ment and rapture to see their language in sprint; and as soon as 
their recovery from surprise allowed^ them utterance, ^It is time 
to give glory to Grod!’ was their mutual exclamation, ^now 
that we behold the commencement of printing books for our 
people.’” 

The entire Old Testament was published in 1842, in ancient 
and modern Syriac, in parallel columns, by the American Bible 
Society. It forms a large quarto volume of more than 1000 
pages. 

Dr. Perkins continues: ^‘The influence of the Holy Scriptures 
on the pupils in our schools and training colleges, and on the 
scores and hundreds of adult Nestorians who are learning to read 
in our Sabbath-schools, and at their humble homes, and through 
all these readers on the mass of the people, is incalculable. 

^^Here, also, efforts have been made, by papal emissaries, to 
pervert the people; and they offer the most serious obstacles we 
have to encounter in our missionary labours. They denounce the 
Holy Scriptures as ^corrupt English looks,’ and forbid their con¬ 
verts to read them.” 

French papists at Mosul, and at Elkoosh, (the venerable home 



THE NESTORIAN CHURCH. 


409 


of the prophet Nahum^) have made many converts among the 
simple people, who but too readily yield to their influence. 

In Dr. Layard’s account of his recent tour, we have a vivid 
sketch of the Nestorian tribes, who are intrenched among the 
mountains of Assyria. 

Soon after they had been put in possession of 2000 copies of 
the four Gospels, by the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 
1830, the Divine seed sprang up, and bore fruit to the glory of 
God. The American missionaries say of these tribes: “Many 
of the people appear like persons awakened from a deep sleep, 
and are inquiring, < How is it that we have been kept so long in 
ignorance and self-delusion?^ To which inquiry their priests 
reply, ‘We ourselves have till now been dead in trespasses and 
sins, and our sin is greater than yours for having hidden the 
light from you so long.’ ” 


We owe to Dr. Layard many details of this early church, inte¬ 
resting as connected with what is said of them in the Reports of 
the Bible Society. He has made two visits to their villages in 
the Tiyari mountains, while taking refuge from the heats of the 
summer during his labours at Nimroud. He often found the 
people gone up to their zomas or summer pastures. These are 
little rocky nooks, high on the mountains, where they build tem¬ 
porary huts of loose stones, with black goat-hair canvas stretched 
over them, pitched at the foot of snowy precipices,—yet, strange 
to say, on a carpet of Alpine flowers. He followed them to their 
zomas. Though poor and needy, they are hospitable, and brought 
their best to the traveller. He says there is an earnest religious 
feeling peculiar to them as a people. 

There are now very few learned priests left among them; yet 
at the time of the Arab invasion they were the chief depositaries 
of the learning of the East. They translated the works of Greek 
philosophers into their own language, and retranslated them into 
Arabic. There exist among them the T-emains of very old 

churches, which have all small entrances, in ordei that their 

35 




410 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


t 3 rrants, the Turks, may not lodge horses and beasts of burden 
within their doors. Dr. Layard sometimes found a book of prayer, 
or the Scriptures in manuscript, lying on the rude altar; but 
frequently the greatest part of the leaves would be wanting, and 
those which remained were torn into shreds, or disfigured by 
damp and mould; for they were compelled to hide in the moun¬ 
tains the manuscripts of the churches, or to bury them in some 
obscure place, at the time of the massacre—the dreadful massacre 
of these poor people—which took place in 1843, when Bader 
Kan Bey, with his cruel Kurds, invaded the Tiyari districts, and 
murdered in cold blood nearly 10,000 of their inhabitants, carry¬ 
ing away their women and children as slaves. These captives 
were afterward released through the influence of the British em¬ 
bassy in Turkey. Dr. Layard actually came in contact, near 
Lizan, with ocular evidences of this terrible slaughter. Skulls, 
heaps of blanched bones, and even skeletons of all ages, still hung 
to the dwarf shrubs growing on the precipitous steeps down 
which they had been hurled. Some of these Nestorians were 
employed as diggers in the mounds at Nineveh; and Dr. L. re¬ 
lates that several of the priests or deacons were among the work¬ 
men, who, on the Sabbath, repeated prayers, or led a hymn or 
chant. 

He adds: ^‘1 often watched these poor creatures, as they reve¬ 
rently knelt, their heads uncovered, under the great bulls, cele¬ 
brating the praises of Him whose temples the worshippers of 
those frowning idols had destroyed, and whose power they had 
mocked. It was the triumph of truth over paganism. Never 
had that triumph been more forcibly illustrated than by those 
who now bowed down in the crumbling halls of the Assyrian 
kings.’^ 

Dr. Layard visited, in the district of Jelu, the church which is 
said to be the oldest in the Nestorian mountains, the only one 
that had escaped the ravages of the Kurds, and still contains the 
ancient furniture and ornaments. The church was so thickly 
hung with relics of the most singular and motley description, 
that the ceiling was completely concealed by them. Among 



THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 


411 


the objects which fir^t attracted my attention were numerous 
China howls, and jars of elegant form and richly coloured, but 
black with the dust of ages. They were suspended, like the 
other relics, from the roof. I was assured that they had been 
there from time out of mind, and had been brought from the dis¬ 
tant empire of Cathay, by those early missionaries of the Chal¬ 
dean Church who bore the tidings of the gospel to the shores of 
the Yellow Sea. If such were really the case, some of them 
might date so far back as the sixth or seventh centuries, when 
the Nestorian Church flourished in China, and its missions were 
spread over the whole of Central Asia.^^ 

How exceedingly interesting is this independent testimony of 
Dr. Layard, as viewed in connection with the news recently re¬ 
ceived from China! He appears to have given excellent counsel 
to Mar Shamoun, the unfortunate and troubled patriarch of the 
church: “I could not disguise from him, that, in education and 
the free circulation of the Scriptures, there could alone be found 
any hope for his people.And thus among the Tiyari moun¬ 
tains exists the remnant of the Syro-Chaldaic or Nestorian 
Church, which once had the living water,’’ in its ancient trans¬ 
lation of the Scriptures, and dispensed it widely to the heathen. 
But in course of time these copies became exceedingly rare. Mr. 
Wolff, the missionary, in his travels in Persia, purchased some 
of them, which safely reached England, though they were twice 
in peril by shipwreck. They came into the possession of the 
Bible Society, who discovered this translation to be the same as 
the Syriac, (but written in Chaldee character,) and, by means of 
its learned editor, T. P. Platt, Esq., supplied from the Syriac its 
missing portions. The sacred Books were sent back in a printed 
form, and the society might have said with Dr. Layard, “ The 
conduits were choked up, but we cleared them, and restored the 
fountain pure a^ it had flowed in the times of the early Nes- 
torians.” 

THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 

The Armenians, as we have seen, are a far-scattered people— 
the travelling merchants of the world. Their number has been 



412 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


estimated at from two to three millions : and the first attempt to 
give them the Scriptures in their vulgar tongue was made by the 
British and Foreign Bible Society. In 1837, a fount of Arme¬ 
nian type was forwarded to the American missionaries at Smyrna, 
and a revised edition of the New Testament was carried carefully 
and slowly through the press. In 1842, 5000 copies were issued, 
and they came immediately into great demand; indeed, the ver¬ 
sion of Scripture in this language has received the manifest bless¬ 
ing of God in a degree almost unprecedented. The following is 
the account given by missionaries on the spot: There are great 
encouragements to aid the Bible circulation in Turkey. There is 
probably not a city in that country to which the Scriptures in 
modern languages have not been carried; and we might mention 
twenty towns where Armenians are found who daily search them, 
for the purpose of guiding their lives according to their supreme 
teachings. In some of these places, this holy volume, owing to 
the fact of its being in the modern language, 'is looked upon as 
a fresh message from heaven; and in such towns especial assem¬ 
blies are held on the Sabbath for studying the Scriptures, and 
this occurs also in towns where no foreign missionary has ever 
been. It is the work of the Bible alone. Among the Arme¬ 
nians, the Bible in the ancient language has always been a promi¬ 
nent and central object on the altar in the church, and is daily 
offered to the people, after prayers, to be kissed. This may have 
tended, perhaps, to their reverence for its teachings in the tongue 
which they understand. 

The reading of the Scriptures among the Armenians has 
cured many of their scepticism. They have become convinced, 
that, whatever failures they might see in professors of Christian¬ 
ity around them, here, in the Book, is pure, living truth! One 
individual, a banker among the Armenians, said, ‘Our nation 
owes to those who have been the means of acquainting us with 
the word of God in an intelligible language, a vast debt of grati¬ 
tude : they have saved not only me but many others from infidel¬ 
ity; for we have found that Christianity has deeper foundations 



ARMENIAN CHRISTIANS IN TURKEY. 


413 


than we had supposed, and that there is in the word of God some¬ 
thing upon which to anchor our faith/ 

young man came to purchase some copies of the Scriptures 
in Armenian, and said, ‘I have received a letter from my native 
city, requesting me to send them some money for building a 
church; but as I am more desirous to build up a church of living 
stones than any other, I shall send home my contribution in the 
form of the printed word of God.^ ” 

With the revival of truth, came also suffering to this church. 
In the former part of the year 1846, persecution of the gospel- 
readers,^^ as they were called, was very common in Turkey. Three 
men in a village near Nicomedia were scourged, one of them 
almost to death, in the presence of the whole village. Nine men 
of Ada Bazar were imprisoned for the same crime. At Trebi- 
zond, the gospel-readers were hunted like wild beasts in the city 
and on the mountains. One went into exile, by order of the 
pasha; one was brought to Constantinople, and chained in a dun¬ 
geon by his neck and feet, for a fortnight, till he was released 
through the interposition of the British ambassador, who is always 
ready for every office of humanity. 

In 1847, Mr. Baker writes : Those Armenians who read the 
Bible are now called Protestants, and have been sadly persecuted, 
at Erzeroom, by the Armenian bishop. He applied to the sultan, 
and the unexpected result has happily been a special order to see 
that none were molested on account of religious opinions. This 
has so encouraged the Protestant Armenians in Turkey, who have 
now become numerous, that, in a village near the town of Nico¬ 
media, a congregation of Protestant Armenians has sprung up, 
adopting the Scriptures alone as their rule of faith. No missionary 
has ever been among them but the Missionary of missionaries— 
the Bible. Sometimes they have been been attacked with stones, 
which they calmly took up, and went and deposited at the gover¬ 
nor’s feet, demanding protection and redress.” 

Similar accounts are given from Aleppo, of a church of 200 
evangelical Christians, formerly Armenians, and solemnly excom¬ 
municated by the Armenian patriarch, but to no purpose, for more 

35 -^ 



414 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


are daily added to their numbers. No missionary has ever been 
among these. It is a reformation arising from the reading of 
the Scriptures alone. Many years ago/^ says Mr. Baker, I 
forwarded a good many Armenian Testaments in this direction, 
and as far as Arab-keer. They were read with avidity in these 
wild districts, where the people are now earnestly requesting a 
missionary.’' 

In 1848, the Reports are equally interesting, and a reprint of 
the Armenian Testament with marginal references was requested: 
thirty, forty, and fifty people were assembling together every 
evening for religious instruction—a most extraordinary change 
in the strongholds of Mohammedanism. In 1850, there was an 
earnest request for a pocket-edition of the same precious Book, 
from those who wished to have the word of God constantly about 
them, that they might be able in conversation with others to 
appeal at once to the law and to the testimony.” 

In 1851, the promotion of many fresh Protestant churches was 
announctu at Aintab, Diarbekir, Mosul, Cesarea, &c. In all 
these places, colporteurs employed by the missionaries circulated 
the word of God. One of the colporteurs says that he stopped 
one Saturday night, a mile distant from the village of Hesemek, 
in a meadow on a river’s bank. Before noon, on Sunday, it was 
noised that he was there; and forty men came out to see him, 
and a large party of them kept him till midnight reading and 
explaining to them the word of God in their modern language. 
They seemed to receive the word gladly; and, like hungry souls, 
they made him give up all the Books he had, and promise to bring 
them a further supply. 

The introduction of the Scriptures in all directions in Turkey 
—in Constantinople, Smyrna, Rodosto, Nicomedia, Adrianople, 
Trebizond, Erzeroom, &c.—has been greatly assisted by the firman 
of his imperial majesty the sultan, confirming and enlarging the 
protection given to all his Protestant subjects, and securing to 
them the full and free exercise of their religion. 

The fact is, that every year’s Report of the increasing influence 
of the word of God, again restored to this ancient church, is more 



NICOMEDIA AND ADA BAZAR. 


415 


gratifying than the preceding. In 1852, the Rev. Isaac Lowndes, 
the society’s agent for Malta and Grreece, writes: I accompanied 
Dr. Dwight, one of the American missionaries, to Nicomedia, 
where we spent the Sabbath, and also to Ada Bazar. 

Nicomedia is situated on the coast of the Sea of Marmora, 
fifty miles east of Constantinople. It was formerly the capital 
of Bithynia, and the residence of the Emperor Constantine and 
some of his successors, during a part of the year. Here Pliny 
resided, and from hence wrote to Trajan for advice as to the best 
measures for preventing the further spread of Christianity. Here 
began the last and worst of the pagan persecutions by the cruel 
edict of Dioclesian. The number of the inhabitants in the town 
is now declared to be about 35,000. 

I visited some remains of antiquity, supposed to be the ruins 
of an ancient Christian church, and some excavations recently 
made, prove it at least to have been the site of a large edifice, 
perhaps that into which first entered the prefect of the praetorian 
band—to burn, to overthrow, and to destroy.* In this very placej 
where the persecution commenced by which Dioclesian said he 
had ^ blotted out Christianity from the earth,’ is now a church 
of ^ living stones’ (150 persons making a creditable profession of 
religion,) and but one of many similar churches to be continually 
multiplied, till the ^knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth 
as the waters cover the sea.’ 

Ada Bazar is still fifty miles further east. The two small 
Christian communities here and at Nicomedia, manifest much of 
a missionary spirit, and already have sent out colporteurs partly 
at their own expense, besides contributing to the support of their 
own pastors. They are a poor people, but their deep poverty 
thus abounds in liberality. 

There are twenty-one Armenian Protestant churches in Asia. 
The one at Aintib has a congregation of 800 persons, and they 
worship in an enormous tent. There are more than 100 villages and 
cities, where it is evident that the gospel has begun to take efiect,” 


* See page 101. 




416 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


The Eev. Mr. Benjamin, American missionary at Constanti¬ 
nople, writes, on the 22d of February, 1853, to the committee of 
the British and Foreign Bible Society, as a member of a mission 
which is indebted to that society and for valuable editions of the 
Divine word, which without it would never have seen the light 

We may truly say, it has been a right arm to our mission. 
May it go forward till its Jubilee shall enlist the sympathy and 
praise of every living soul upon the earth ! 

Sometimes the wonder-working providence of God conveys 
the copies furnished by the society to places hitherto unapproached 
by the missionary and even by the colporteur. Certain wandering 
Kurds,* who roam over the north of Syria, had possessed them¬ 
selves of a quantity of Armenian Scriptures, and finding them of 
no use to themselves, distributed them among the Armenian 
population in the neighbourhood of their own encampment, by 
whom they were joyfully received. 

‘AVe think you may safely assure the friends of the Bible in 
Great Britain, that, since the period when the reign of apostasy 
first extended over this fair land, no year has witnessed so much 
actual Christian progress effected as in the last year. One fact 
of general notoriety and of great importance is, that the circula¬ 
tion of the word of God among the Armenians has already put an 
effectual stop to the influence^ of the Bomanists among the 
people. 

‘‘ For a great number of years, the papists have been labouring 
with ceaseless activity, and by deep-laid plans, to gain over to 
their church the Armenian nation; and they had every prospect 
of entire success in their schemes. The Armenians in general 
observe, that, if the Protestant Beformation among them had not 
commenced when it did, half of the Armenian nation, or, as some 
say, the whole, would long ere this have become Boman Catholic. 


«■ The Kurds are the descendants of the ancient Parthians. The Yezidis, 
who fear to utter the name of Satan, are a tribe of Kurds. The Kurds in 
general profess Mohammedanism, but a great number of them have joined the 
Nastorian Christians. 




JUBILEE MEETING AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 


417 


Now, persons who once combined with papists to keep out the 
Bible and Protestantism, are ready to co-operate with Protestants 
in the conflict with popery.^’ 

Dr. Layard again bears independent testimony to this Protestant 
movement going on in Turkey, and he attributes it to the very 
judicious and earnest exertions of the American missionaries 
during the last fifteen years. They have educated intelligent 
youths from different parts of the empire, who have sowed the 
seeds of truth and knowledge far abroad. lie notices the perse¬ 
cution, the intervention of our ambassadors, and their great in¬ 
strumentality in securing religious toleration. * He speaks of the 
printing-press as publishing the Scriptures in the dialects of the 
mountain-tribes, and rejoices that the English language is now 
planted in the heart of Asia, and extending its benefits to un¬ 
known races.* 


We have delightful tidings from Turkey, dated 13th of June, 
1853. The Rev. H. Dwight tells us that that was a day long to 
be remembered in Constantinople, for it was a day on which tbe 
first public meeting was ever held there to commemorate the 
labours of evangelical Christendom for* the conversion of the 
earth. It was held at a time when the foundations of society 
were threatened, and when the most sagacious politicians could 
not tell whether in a few weeks anarchy and bloodshed might not 
desolate the land. At such a time, how blessed the privilege to 
rally round the eternal word of God,—the sure foundation, and 
the only light and hope of the world ! 

^‘This meeting,” says Mr. Dwight, ^^was a Jubilee meeting 
of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the honoured parent 
of all other Bible Societies. It was held in the large saloon of 
the Hotel d’Angleterre, and there must have been present at least 
200 persons. The present British ambassador. Lord Stratford de 
Redclifie, took the chair, and addressed the residents of the place 


« Nineveh and Babylon/’ p. 405. 





418 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


and also a few Christian travellers from England and America 
who happened to be present. He alluded to the time of the in¬ 
stitution of the Parent Society; that it was when Napoleon was 
near the zenith of his day, and England was at war with almost 
every nation of Europe, that the friends of the Bible first con¬ 
ceived the thought of sending that one Book throughout all the 
world. -He said he was reminded of the ancient heathen fable of 
a golden chain suspending the earth from the throne of Jupiter. 
This fable had become realized under the Christian system, for 
the Bible was the golden chain that bound us to the throne of 
God. His lordship warmly commended the zeal and discretion 
which had characterized the efforts of the American, German, 
and English missionaries, who had all acted in beautiful harmony 
in carrying forward this work.’^ 

An association was then formed in connection with the British 
and Foreign Bible Society, to assist in the work of distributing 
the word of God in Turkey. 

Who shall tell the effect of this new movement on the Arme¬ 
nians, in all the countries in which they are scattered, and on the 
Turks out of Europe, as well as on Mohammedans who are not 
Turks ? The Asiatic peninsula is the chief stronghold of Islam, 
and from this centre may yet radiate, toward Turkey in Asia, the 
light of a purer faith. 

Perhaps you may not have thought of the fact, that it is only 
a manuscript Koran which contests with a printed Bible. So¬ 
cieties have never been formed for printing and distributing the 
Koran of Mohammed, or the Yedas and Shastras of the Hindus. 
The Mohammedan copies the Koran for himself, and frequently 
commits it to memory, as the Brahmins of India do their sacred 
books. The false lights shall die out; they are not fitted for the 
humwii race ; but the light of eternal truth must penetrate all the 
dark places of the earth, and be rekindled in language after lan¬ 
guage, till He come, whose right it is to reign, and till all the 
kingdoms of the wfrrld shall become the kingdoms of our Lord 
and of his 'Christ.’^ 



THE COPTIC CHURCH. 


419 


THE COPTIC CHURCH. 

The only language known to have derived its origin from the 
Ancient Egyptian is the Coptic, the second language in which the 
inscription on the Rosetta stone is written. 

This origin has invested the Coptic with peculiar interest in the 
eyes of the hjarned. It is called ‘‘a venerable language,’’ and in 
it the liturgy of the Coptic church is still publicly read; hut it 
is not understood by the majority of the Copts, who mostly speak 
Arabic. 

The Copts themselves scarcely form a fourteenth part of the 
motley population dwelling on the soil of their ancestors. Some¬ 
times they are persecuted, sometimes they turn Mohammedans, 
and they are not now supposed to be in number more than 
150,000. They have a patriarch or supreme head, who is also 
the head of the Abyssinian church. In 1829, an edition of 2000 
of the Coptic Gospels, printed in parallel columns with the Arabic 
version, was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. 
The text had been prepared by the Coptic patriarch, at the in¬ 
stance of Mr. Jowett. ‘^No complete edition of the Coptic Old 
Testament has yet been published, for several of the books are 
missing. It is however probable, that they are not actually lost, 
and that they may yet be found in some of the cloisters of Egypt.” 

In 1832, the Rev. Mr. Leider, a missionary connected with the 
Church Missionary Society, furnished the following details re¬ 
specting Egypt:— 

During our six years’ stay in Egypt, all parts of it have 
several times been visited by us, and we have circulated the Holy 
Scriptures in Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Italian, French, 
German, Spanish, Hebrew, and Coptic. We have endeavoured 
also to introduce the word of God, or part of it, into the schools 
of this nation, where hundreds of children now begin to read the 
word of life. 

Though we have not yet met with real conversions among the 
natives, we know that the Holy Scriptures are read in many 
houses, and that some think more seriously about the salvation 



420 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


of their souls, and are anxious to lay aside those sinful customs 
which are very general in Egypt, as for instance, swearing, lyingj 
and hypocrisy, so strongly condemned by holy writ. 

“ There are still great numbers in Egypt who are not provided 
with the Divine word. Some of them cannot read it on account 
of the smallness of the type, others are ignorant of the value of 
this great treasure, and many cannot obtain it for want of money. 
In regard to the small type in which the Arabic Scriptures have 
hitherto been printed, I remark, that many of the people are 
unable to read them, partly from an incapacity to distinguish tlfe 
letters from each other, and partly from a fear of losing their 
present impaired sight. Europeans cannot imagine how much 
the Egyptians suffer from weak eyes, or how many have lost their 
sight entirely from ophthalmia. It would therefore be a most 
necessary and noble work, were the British and Foreign Bible 
Society to furnish the Egyptians, and the Arabs in general, with 
the Holy Scriptures printed in large type.^^ ' 

The committee complied with this suggestion, and ordered 5000 
Arabic Testaments and Psalms in larger type, forthwith. An 
edition of 2014 copies of the Coptic Psalter, printed in parallel 
columns with the Arabic version, has likewise been issued by the 
Bible Society. 

The Rev. W. Kruse, a missionary in Egypt, writes from Cairo: 

The Coptic patriarch becomes more and more friendly toward 
us, and often sends monks to us to receive the Holy Scriptures. 
One of these, whose serene, sincere look, confirmed the truth of 
the words he uttered when receiving the Bible, said, ^ A greater 
treasure than this I do not look for on earth; for whoever lives 
according to its contents, is safe and happy forever.^ These monks 
are always being changed in the convent of the patriarchs. They 
come from all the convents in Egypt alternately, at various ap¬ 
pointed times, to Cairo, stay for some time here, and then return 
to their convents, while others take their places.^^ Thus the 
Scriptures will penetrate into all parts of Egypt. The issues for 
this country, since 1820, have reached 6000 copies. More, many 



ABYSSINIA—THE WALDENSES. 


421 


more copies, and a man like Lntlier,^’ as one among themselves 
has said, are needed to reform this church. 

ABYSSINIA. 

The Amharic Testament having been carried through the press 
in 1829, the entire Bible was completed from M. Asselin’s trans¬ 
lation in 1842. The copies printed have been 7000, beside more 
than 4000 portions of Scripture in Ethiopic. There is little 
known at present of the results of distribution, either in the Abys¬ 
sinian or Coptic Churches; but the following details are interest¬ 
ing, furnished by the missionaries before the whole Scriptures 
reached them. They found it very difficult to do any thing in 
Abyssinia, before they had the whole Bible ; for the reading-people 
are a thoughtful race, very apt to suppose that those who speak 
to them about religion are deceivers; but when they can them¬ 
selves see a passage in the Scriptures contrary to their opinions, 
they will immediately give them up.^^ The missionaries say : 

We have had one Abyssinian with us for nine months, and he 
has read so much in the Amharic Gospels, that he knows all four 
almost by heart. Though he is very humble in every respect, he 
does not give up a single error till we have proved to him by the 
Gospels that it is an error. He desires much to have the Epistles 
of Paul, of which we are always speaking.^^ The committee ex¬ 
pressed a hope that this intelligent student would prove a fair 
specimen of his countrymen. 

THE WALDENSES. 

By a census made, about 1820, of the inhabitants of the Vau- 
dois valleys, it was found that the Protestants were nearly 17,000 
in number, and the Catholics 4000. 

Two or three individuals, during this century, have been re¬ 
markable for the interest they have taken in the members of this 
ancient church, which, in its bitter sufferings, has always found so 
much sympathy in the heart of England. 

Felix Neff, once a young officer of artillery, afterwards a Chris- 



422 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


tian pastor, was led by Providence to that part of the French Alps 
where the Yaudois Church had been established. He triumphed 
over all obstacles, and, like another Oberlin, taught the inhabitants 
to irrigate their meadows, and to improve their lands; but he more 
particularly lent himself to the task of revivifying their souls. 

In his visits to the Yaudois valleys and to those of Piedmont, 
he was forcibly struck with their richness of vegetation as con¬ 
trasted with the barrenness of the French valleys, and he was 
equally struck with their spiritual degeneracy. He began to form 
prayer-meetings among them, and thus was religious zeal revived 
in these interesting valleys. We have already seen their glad re¬ 
ception of help from the Bible Society.* 

In 1823, the Bev. Hr. Gilly journeyed to these valleys, and, 
when he returned, thousands were interested by his published ac¬ 
count of them, and among others. Major-general Beckwith, who 
is still their benefactor. The general, with other friends, has 
erected and endowed a hundred schools among the Yaudois; and 
in 1830, forwarded to the committee of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society a specimen page of a translation of two Gospels 
into the dialect which is now spoken by them. The translation 
was made by the Eev. Mr. Bert, pastor of La Tour. The society 
undertook to publish 1000 copies in parallel columns, with Martin’s 
French version. In 1832, 600 copies had been distributed, and 
another edition was called for of 2000 copies. A letter from 
Major-general Beckwith, in 1840, announces that the Gospels 
sent into Northern Italy are freely circulating among the Protest- ^ 
ants. With the progress of education, however, the use of the 
modern French language is rapidly gaining ground among these 
people, because French is the medium of instruction in the schools. 
Yet there is among them a special school for the training of 
young men for the ministry, in which, since the year 1848, all 
the candidates for the pastorship are instructed in Italian, with a 
view to the restoration in the valleys of their own national 
tongue. 


^ See page 299. 





THE JEWS. 


423 


In the Report for 1853, Major-General Beckwith is said to have 
made a remittance of 95/. 13s. 4t/. for Italian and Piedmontese 
Scriptures circulated by him among the Waldensian Churches j 
and, on his recommendation, an edition of 2500 copies of Genesis 
and Luke, in Italian, will be printed; and these will be placed at 
his disposal for the purpose of distribution. 

We have very interesting recent intelligence concerning the 
remarkable religious awakening in the north of Italy, and which 
is taking place through the missionary efforts of the descendants 
of the ancient Waldenses, and the circulation of the Scriptures. 

The burning lamp, surrounded with the seven stars,’’ the old 
symbol of the AValdensian Church, has begun to verify its ancient 
motto, Lux lucet in tenebris.” 

THE JEWS. 

But is there any part of the society’s work, after all, so de¬ 
lightful, as restoring the pure and living waters to the nation 
for whose sake they first flowed? On the brow of the Jew is 
written our pas^, and our future; for, “if through their fall, sal¬ 
vation is come unto the Gentiles,—if the fall of them be the 
riches of the world, and the diminishing of them 'the riches of 
the Gentiles, Kow much more their fulness! —for if the casting 
away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the 
receiving of them he, hut life from the dead?'^ Romans xi. 
12,15. 

And shall not the Gentile Church hasten the time of her own 
“ fulness,” as she earnestly prays with Judah for her captive sister 
Israel of old, “ Return, we beseech thee, oh God of hosts: look 
down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; and the vine¬ 
yard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou 
madest strong for thyself?” Psalm Ixxx. 14, 15. 

In various ways, during the last quarter of a century, a vast 
number of copies of the Scriptures, in Hebrew and other Ian 
guages, have been circulated among the Jews of different countries, 
partly by means of societies interested in their welfare, and partly 
by purchase, of their own accord. The Report of the Bible 



424 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Societies witness to tlie desire of the Jews to possess the Bible, at 
Malta, at Damascus, at St. Petersburg, and other places. 

The Bev. Mr. Ewald, formerly missionary at Tunis, who appears 
to be himself a Jew, gives us, in the year 1837, an interesting 
account of his labours among his brethren aecording to the flesh. 
He has shown, he says, to hundreds of thousands of them what 
Moses and the prophets have foretold of the Redeemer of the 
world. In the space of four years, the time that I have spent 
in the north of Africa, 5000 copies of the Scriptures have been put 
into circulation at Algiers, at Tunis, at Tripoli, and in many other 
towns. Sometimes there was opposition: the Mohammedana priests 
burned a Bible, the Roman Catholic priests said it was not genuine, 
and some ignorant Jewish Rabbins did the same; but still the word 
of life isread by Mohammedans, Jews, and Roman Catholics. 

^^But some will say, ‘What good have you done by giving the 
Bible to the Jews at a low price ? Of course they are glad to 
receive their own Scriptures as cheap as possible; but that does 
not bring them nearer to Christianity.^ Such questions have been 
asked. Allow me to give an answer to them. The Jews in ge¬ 
neral are ignorant of the wliole contents of the Bible. Hundreds 
do not read more than the five books of Moses, and some portions 
of the prophets. Hence it arises, that they are ignorant of the 
many prophecies respecting the Messiah; and often, when I quote 
passages referring to His coming, sufferings, and death, they will 
tell me, ‘Those passages do not occur in our Bible: you have 
written them in favour of your religion.^ And this is not the 
case in Africa only, for I have met with the same in Germany, 
and even in England, where Bibles are so easily to be had. 

“Now, how can we preach the Saviour of the world to the 
Tews with effect ? How can we prove the truths of Christianity 
lut of their own Scriptures, if they are ignorant of them, if they 
have never read the evangelical prophecy of Isaiah, the plain pre¬ 
dictions of David, and of the rest of the prophets ? By giving 
them their own Scriptures, we try by the blessing of God to make 
them Israelites, to draw them away from the hollow cisterns of 
rabbinism, and to bring them to the fountain of living water.” 



JEWS IN TUNIS. 


425 


The same missionary says : The Jews now read the word of 
the living Grod without the comments of the rabbins, and often 
wish the good society which sent them the Scriptures at so 
low a price, a thousand blessings from above. At Zwaghan, about 
fifty miles from Tunis, poverty and misery abound, and a shil¬ 
ling is of as much value as a pound in England. In such places 
especially, the benefits conferred by the Bible Society are fully 
appreciated.'^ . 

From Tunis, also, in 1846, the Rev. N. Davis writes as follows: 

About twenty years ago, a number of copies of the Hebrew New 
Testament were sent hither, by your society, and one of them 
came into the possession of Mr. Nigjar, an infidel Jew, who lent 
it to Mr. Bishmoth, also a Jew, with a view to unsettle his opi¬ 
nions likewise. Mr. B. perused it, but it had a different effect 
upon him. Instead of making him what is falsely called liberal- 
minded,%e became seriously-minded, for he saw there was no other 
way left him but either to embrace the truths of the gospel, or 
continue without peace in this world, and without hope beyond 
the grave. 

After twenty days, Mr. Nigjar himself told me that Mr. Bish¬ 
moth returned with the Testament. He said he was surprised to 
find him in tears, and in a very agitated state of mind, and more 
so still when he exclaimed, Hs this the history of Jesus who is so 
misrepresented by our rabbins ? I fully believe him to have been 
the Messiah, and all predictions of a Messiah to be fulfilled in 
him. Our nation is in darkness, and will be so till they believe 
in him.' ^He called on me often,' said Mr. N., ^and brought me 
such wonderful things from Moses and the prophets, as would 
greatly surprise you.' Mr. Nigjar himself has, through the in¬ 
strumentality of this ma^, been brought to a more serious state 
of mind. Both visit me : one is in the eighty-third year of his 
age, and the other has passed seventy." 

Mr. Melville, a gentleman who is mentioned in the Report for 
1846 as indefatigable in his labours among the Tartars, travelling 
in an open cart from village to village in their country, with boxes 
of Scriptures for distribution, speaks of the Jews in the following 



426 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


encouraging manner:—The Jews in Tartary have been great 
purchasers of the Scriptures this year. There is a general move¬ 
ment onwards among the Jews at present, which we ought to 
follow up by as large a distribution of Testaments as possible. 
They are no longer burners of those holy Books. They are 
eagerly read, and by many diligently studied. May the Spirit of 
the Lord draw aside the veil, that the beams of the Sun of Right¬ 
eousness may shine into their hearts, hitherto cold and icy, towards 
the Redeemer of Israel! Much re^quires to be done among the 
Jews in Chersosi. Many are in deep poverty, and cannot even 
pay the present low prices for Bibles. The almost general opinion 
at present respecting the Jews is, that the study of the prophets 
will bring them to embrace Christianity. 

In 1849, Mr. Barker writes: Our work goes on steadily, and 
the demand for the Hebrew Scriptures continues unabated, and, 
if any thing, gains ground.^^ 

We have heard that there is, in this Jubilee Year of the Bible 
Society, a remarkable movement taking place among the J ews in 
every country in which they are scattered. The rabbinism which 
has enslaved them for so many ages is rapidly losing its influence. 
Multitudes are throwing aside the Mishna and the Talmud, and 
betaking themselves again to the study of Moses and the prophets. 
Among the Jews in London, it is said, there is at this present 
time a great demand for copies of the Hebrew Old Testament. 
How far the steady and persevering distribution of the Scriptures 
among them may have quietly tended to this result, we must leave 
it to a future day to reveal. The subject of their return to Pa¬ 
lestine, and the nature of the promises on which this expectation 
is founded, are engaging their deepest attention. In the exami¬ 
nation of this matter they have been assisted by a rabbi from the 
continent, who has exhibited a manuscript, in which he has endea¬ 
voured to prove from Scripture, that the time has come when the 
Jews must make preparation for returning to their own country— 
the land of their fathers. The said manuscript has been pub¬ 
lished both in Hebrew and English, in the form of a small tract. 



JEWS IN PALESTINE. 


427 


and it is said to be very influencial in furthering the movement 
proposed by the learned rabbi. 


In 1851, the English bishop at Jerusalem favoured the com¬ 
mittee with sd^me interesting communications. He says: ‘‘1 feel 
more and more, that, if it were not for the liberality of the Bible 
Society, I could scarcely do any thing in Palestine. I trust that, 
though the returns of money are scanty, on account of the ex¬ 
treme poverty of most of those who desire to receive the word of 
life, yet the returns in a higher sense will reward those who have 
helped in sowing the incorruptible seed. 

The work of God has considerably developed itself at Naza¬ 
reth. Very soon after the first visit of one of my Bible-readers 
to Nazareth, several individuals of that place visited me, and beg¬ 
ged that I would establish a school for children, as I had done at 
Nablous; but all I could do then, was to supply the people with 
Bibles, and direct them by correspondence.^^ 

There are at this time thirteen heads of families representing 
sixty-one souls, who have signed a document by which they de¬ 
clare themselves Protestants, and fifty more are ready to do the 
same. They are very anxious to be recognised by the govern¬ 
ment as a Protestant community. This is in consequence of the 
simple reading of the Bible,—of the history of Jesus of Nazareth, 
—in the very place where the Lord abode. How delightful for 
the Bible Society to be able to say of all these old and interesting 
sources from whence the Scriptures have come down to us, The 
conduits were choked up, hut we cleared them, and restored the 
fountain pure as it had flowed in the times of old 




CHAPTER XI. 


The Protestant Countries: Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden 
—State of the Continent—Lord Bexley—Mr. Bran dram—Wales—Scotland— 
England—Ireland—Home Colporteurs, and Collectors—Final Appeal—Mo¬ 
tives for Renewed Exertion. 

But now we must approach our final review of earth’s Pro¬ 
testant nations, and the effects of Bible-distribution among them 
during the last quarter of a century. 

We must close with Great Britain; therefore we will take 
the rest in brief succession as before, beginning with— 

HOLLAND. 

The Netherlands Bible Society had, in 1832, been taking mea¬ 
sures to obtain a good translation of the Javanese New Testament. 
They employed for this purpose Mr. Gericke, who went to Java 
itself; and, being a good oriental scholar, and zealous for the 
cause of God, entered into the spirit of the Javanese people more 
than any European ever did before, acquiring a deep and thorough 
knowledge of their language, character, customs, and religious 
principles. While he was getting all this knowledge, not only 
by familiar conversation with the people in general, but also by 
the opportunities that were afforded to him of being admitted to 
the courts of the Javanese princes, he did not lose sight of the 
two great points of his mission, viz. the composing of a Javanese 
grammar, and the translation of the Bible into that tongue. The 
grammar has been well received in Java, and even the Javanese 
are surprised at it. The King of the Netherlands presented, on 
this account, to Mr. Gericke, a gold medal, showing that the 
government also prized his exertions. 

In 1844, colportage was adopted with great advantage in Hol¬ 
land ; and Mr. Tiddy writes, that the sales at the dep6t surpass 
428 


HOLLAND—GERMANY. 


429 


all idea: in one week they amounted to 2250 volumes. In nine 
years, the sale of Scriptures in Holland has surpassed 326,000 
volumes. The depositary at Amsterdam writes in 1853: Armed 
with this sword of the Spirit, the colporteurs continue their tra¬ 
vels ; and this year we have again experienced that our God is 
faithful, and that his word retains its power. The opposition of 
the papacy is increasing. Against the artifices of this party, the 
strongest bulwark is the word of God. Nothing is feared hy 
Rome more than this” 

In 1851, in forwarding his annual Report, and after lamenting 
the loss of Mr. Brandram, Mr. Tiddy says: There has been, 
without doubt, a remarkable revival brought about in Holland by 
the Holy Spirit’s blessing on the Scriptures circulated by us. 
The clear type and low prices of the books have been the means 
of introducing the word of God where before it was npt to be met 
with. It would often cheer your heart to see the sparkling eyes 
of children as they receive a beautiful Testament or Bible in ex¬ 
change for the few copper cents they have been carefully saving 
up for that purpose. It has always appeared to me that our col- 
portage is literal obedience to the command of our Lord, in Luke 
xiv. 23, ^ And the Lord said unto the servant. Go out into the 
highways and hedges.’ It certainly carries the treasure to thou¬ 
sands who would never otherwise receive it.” 

GEllMANY. 

In 1843, it was said that the missionary cause called forth 
more interest in the Protestant states of Germany than that of 
the Bible Society, and the reason for this was thus expressed: 

The copies of the Bible which we issued send us no reports of 
their labours; whereas, the missionaries we send out to the heathen 
relate the dangers they pass through, the difficulties they encoun¬ 
ter, and the success which attend their labours. All this awakens 
and keeps alive an interest in themselves and their work. But 
with the copies of the Scriptures which we send forth, it ought 
to be considered, that their operations, though silent, are not less 



430 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


sure. They penetrate into the hearts of thousands of families, 
whom the living preacher would never have reached, and there 
they effect that for which they were sent. 

We think the cause of gospel truth is making progress among 
the Protestant nations of Germany; still it will be long before its 
literature can be purified from its anti-Christian leaven. There 
has been a large distribution of Bibles in the country, both by 
the Continental Societies with the Apocrypha, and by the agents 
of the British and Foreign Bible Society without it; and this has 
been followed by some encouraging appearances of the dawn of a 
brighter day; though, alas! it must still be acknowledged that 
the pulpits and schools are mostly occupied by rationalists of va¬ 
rious shades ; and it would seem as if many years must pass away 
before the destructive doctrines so widely spread among all classes 
will be superseded by a simple faith in the truths of revelation. 
They have trifled with the facts of the Bible itself, and brought 
themselves to believe that its miracles are to be accounted for by 
natural causes: they have ^ taken away from the words of the 
book,^ and added unto it also by the intermixture of the Apocry¬ 
pha. A large proportion of the people are in the hands of the 
Jesuits, and they need a new Luther Go rush like a torrent 
through the channels of the watercourses of the Divine word,^ 
still stopped up by Satan and foolish men, and to carry away with 
his force the blocks and barriers of unbelief and mysticism, so 
that the word may have free course and prevail.” 

Mr. E. Millard, the agent in Austria and Hungary, having by 
the mysterious providence of God been compelled to leave that 
promising sphere, was directed to settle at Breslau, and to endea¬ 
vour to extend the operations of the society in Silesia and Posen. 
Here his chief difficulties lie in the extreme poverty of the people, 
their apathy, and their predilection for the Apocrypha. He says, 
indeed, that the friends of the pure word of God are worried day 
by day, and hour by hour, on the continent, on account of these 
apocryphal wi'itings. The Jesuits have educated the people to 
believe that our Bibles are imperfect. Still a circulation of 10,000 
copies in one year has taken place, by means of the colporteurs. 



GERMANY—DENMARK. 


431 


In 1851, the venerable Dr. Steinkopff paid a visit to this part 
of the continent, and an interesting letter from him states several 
pleasing facts. He says, that pious ministers and people meet 
together more frequently than they did, even from great distances, 
to strengthen each other’s hands; that there are arising influential 
home missions, and that spiritual religion is making some growth. 
Luther’s German Bible has still a large circulation, and tens of 
thousands of Roman Catholics boldly venture to read it, in spite 
of all the thunders of the Vatican; 700,000 copies of Dr. Van 
Ess’s Testament have been distributed, and the energetic yet 
patient labours of the Bible agents are casting seed into a barren 
field, which he believes will yet bring forth fruit: his closing 
paragraph, however, speaks of the present awful condition of the 
continent in a political, moral, and religious point of view, which 
should elicit earnest prayer on its behalf, on the part of Christians. 
One of its prominent evils is the profanation of the Christian 
Sabbath—a distinguishing fruit of the teaching derived from the 
church which hides the Bible. 

DENMARK. 

The Bishop of Adensee, in this country remarks, that, with 
regard to the Christian tendency of the coming time, a great deal 
will depend on whether children from ten to fourteen years of age 
are made acquainted with the word of God and of Christ; for what 
they learn in their youth they will not forget in old age; and when 
life brings its sorrows and troubles, they will then know where to 
turn for consolation and blessing.” 

Mr. Henderson visited this country again in 1844, after the 
lapse of nearly forty years, and speaks of a considerable number 
of the inhabitants aS inquiring after a better way. He says : In 
many of the churches, a portion of the Lord’s-day is appropriated 
by the clergy to the public reading of the Bible, accompanied by 
explanatory remarks, and the total issues of the Bible Society in 
Denmark have been 193,000 copies. The general state of indiffer. 
ence to religion, however, and the general breach of the Sabbath, 
are very painful to the minds of Christian residents here.” 



432 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


NORWAY AND SWEDEN. 

There have been colporteurs in Sweden and in Norway, and 
the distribution of the Bibles has gone on, though not so actively 
as might be desired. More than 100,000 copies have been cir¬ 
culated in Norway, and more than 500,000 in Sweden, since 
1828. In these countries, Bible distribution is encouraged by the 
authorities; and the anniversary meetings of the Bible Society 
are attended by the king and the royal princes; but our limits 
forbid further enlargement. For the same reason, we must not 
enter upon Finland, Lapland, and Greenland, except, indeed, to 
state in a few words that the circulation of the Scriptures has been 
increasing from year to year, and that the evidences of a Divine 
blessing on the work prove that the labours of the society in the 
frozen regions of the north are not in vain in the Lord.^^ 


Our review of the society’s operations on the continent of Europe 
may be concluded in the language of one who visited Belgium and 
Germany, in the summer of 1852 : 

I could not help noticing two classes of facts and circum¬ 
stances, calculated on the one hand to awaken apprehension, and 
on the other to inspire hope. 

^^The rulers of continental Europe are persuaded to believe 
that the free use of the Bible and the liberty of religious worship 
are dangerous to the stability of thrones and governments, and 
hence the attempts made to curtail the privileges of the people, 
by laws and police regulations. Jesuit missions are multiplying. 
These active agents of Antichrist itinerate to preach and to lecture. 
Their organs become more daring, and they insinuate themselves 
and their principles into the closets and councils of princes. Our 
excellent colporteurs experience increasing difficulties, and, to 
some extent, personal danger, in the prosecution of their work. 
This especially the case where their labours are carried on among 
an ignorant and bigoted popish population, stirred up to oppo¬ 
sition by the orations of Jesuitical priests. While popery is thus 
presenting its difficulties in the way of a free Bible, infidelity, 




PRESENT STATE OF THE CONTINENT. 


433 


again, in various forms, sometimes open and vulgar, and some¬ 
times disguised and subtile, in public discourses and widely-circu 
lated books, presents powerful barriers in our way. 

It must be admitted, however, that while there is much to 
awaken apprehension, there is not a little to inspire hope, and to 
afford encouragement. If our foes are many, our friends also are 
numerous, and are increasing in number. If the opposition is 
more bold and bitter on the part of the papists and infidels, the 
support and advocacy of the society are becoming more decided 
and general. There are reasons to believe that evangelical religion 
is increasing. Professors and pastors are coming nearer to ^ the 
truth as it is in Jesus.’ A better and purer literature is pro¬ 
gressing. The ^ Inner Mission’ of Germany is doing a great and 
good work, while the French and Belgian Evangelical Societies 
are showing signs of growing life and spiritual vigour, which, 
with God’s blessing on the seed sown by our own and other socie¬ 
ties, will produce a harvest of truth and holiness among the 
nations of the continent. 

When at sea, between Dover and Ostend, I heard some one 
who had been on deck announcing to the passengers below, who, ' 
like myself, were longing for dry land aud daylight, ^ I am happy 
to say, the day is breaking.’ Whether it is imagination, assisted 
by an ardent desire, or the result of sober investigation and a 
careful survey, I hope I may say, without presumption, in refer¬ 
ence to some parts at least of the continent of Europe, ‘ The day 
is breaking.’ 

«‘ Yes ! I hope the day is breaking,— 

Joyful times are near at hand; 

God, the mighty God, is speaking 
By his word in every land : 

Mark bis progress! 

Darkness flies at his command. 

** ‘ While the foe becomes more daring,— 

While he enters like a flood,— 

God the Saviour is preparing 

Means to spread his truth abroad. 

Every language 

Soon shall tell the love of God.* 

37 



434 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


ENGLAND. 

But now, from our Jubilee travels round the world, we at last 
return home to the happy isle which is honoured to be still the 
centre and source of all the blessed changes that have been re- 
«corded; and we return with a most solemn view of its present re¬ 
sponsibilities. 

In glancing at the work of the Bible Society, during its second 
period, at home, we must not omit to notice two of its members, 
the successors of those who had departed, and now themselves, 
also, ^^not lost, but gone before,^’—Lord Bexley, who became 
president when Lord Teignmouth was no more, and the Bev. 
Andrew Brandram, rector of Beckenham, Kent, who accepted its 
clerical secretaryship on the death of the Bev. John Owen. 

Lord Bexley was elected president in 1834, and remained for 
seventeen years (until removed by death) ^Hhe centre of the 
widest circle the world ever saw.^'* He was among the most un¬ 
hesitating, yet prudent, of those who defended the cause of the 
society, during the first years of its existence. The cause was 
not then popular, and was much exposed to controversies which 
it has since outlived. Lord Bexley, then Mr. Yansittart, counted 
the cost, and willingly gave it his personal support, at any sacrifice. 
He was one of the earliest cabinet-ministers who enrolled their 
names in its ranks, and always declared that he considered it one 
of the most -j^owerful means for evangelizing the whole world. He 
knew the importance of the Bible to others, because he knew its 
unutterable value to his own soul. He was also the last survivor 
among the ministers of the venerable monarch whose wish it was 
^‘that every man in his dominions might be able to read the 
Bible,^^ and the one who practically aimed to fulfil the wish of his 
royal master. When reproached by a professor of divinity for 

uniting with dissenters’^ in this great work, he replied, So far 
from repenting of what I have done, I feel convinced I shall less 


Earl of Harrowby’s Speech, at the" Anniversary of 1851. 




LORD BEXLEY—MR. BRANDRAM. 


435 


and less repent of it, as I approach that state in which the distinc¬ 
tion of churchman and dissenter will he no more.^^ 

Side by side with this declaration of Lord Bexley’s, we should 
like you to remember that of Dean Milner: I would not, for 
all this kingdom can bestow, have my conscience loaded with the 
bitter reflection that I had ever, directly or indirectly, been in¬ 
strumental in obstructing the free progress of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society.” 

The Kev. Andrew Brandram, who died at Brighton on the 26th 
of December, 1850, had been for twenty-seven years the inde¬ 
fatigable clerical secretary of the society. He is recorded to have 
received his first religious impressions while at Winchester school, 
and while preparing for Oriel college, Oxford, where he took a 
double first-class rank. It is said, that, placing his books in a 
closet which had been left vacant by the boy who preceded him, 
he found an old Bible, the only thing, it seems, which it had 
not been thought worth while to carry away. Curiosity impelled 
him to read it, and it made him ^^wise unto salvation.” From 
that time his whole character was altered and probably his after¬ 
life influenced as one of the chief officers of that noble institution, 
to whose interests he devoted all the vigour of his manhood. He 
kept that old Bible till his death. It may be truly said of 
him, that he was ^^in labours most abundant.” Year after year, 
an increase of those labours was rendered necessary by the con¬ 
stantly enlarging operations of the society. He undertook a large 
portion of the extensive correspondence, domestic and foreign, 
besides travelling frequently throughout England to attend anni¬ 
versary meetings; and these, in connection with his other duties, 
domestic and pastoral, exacted from him an amount of effort which 
few could have sustained so long, and under which his robust and 
vigorous frame at last gave way. The result was, that, when it 
pleased God that the hand of disease should be laid upon him, all 
the springs of life seemed to have been broken at once. He 
quickly sank into a state of entire prostration, and from the couch 
of utter feebleness, rose only ^‘to depart and be with Christ for 
ever.” The memorial adopted by the committee adds, ^‘Mr. 



436 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Brandram combined qualities but rarely found in the same in¬ 
dividual,—strength of body and mind, talent and learning, solidity 
of judgment, singleness of purpose, integrity of conduct, and an 
independence of spirit always under the control of Christian prin¬ 
ciple. Not having respect to his own ease, nor shunning reproach 
for Christ’s sake, he laboured and toiled, and watched and prayed, 
in all things commending himself to the approval not of men, 
but of God.” 

Of the present secretaries and home-agents of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, nothing need be said at present: the memo¬ 
rial to their faithful devotedness, will, we hope, belong to a yet far 
future day. They all rejoice with joy unspeakable over the ripen¬ 
ing harvest which is beginning to be reaped of the precious seed 
of the word. The Bight Hon. the Earl of Shaftesbury has suc¬ 
ceeded Lord Bexley as president. The eye, in looking down the 
present list of vice-presidents, will observe a large phalanx of 
bishops, earls, and lords. The Bev. Dr. Pinkerton, Mr. Benjamin 
Barker, Mons. de Pressense, Mr. W. P. Tiddy, the Bev. Isaac 
Lowndes, Lieut. Graydon, and Mr. E. Millard, are the foreign 
agents at Frankfort, at Smyrna, in Paris, in Belgium, at Malta, 
in Switzerland, in Northern Italy, and at Breslau. We hope we 
may have led you to look with earnest interest on all future re¬ 
ports of their proceedings. 

In the year 1836, after a survey of their field of labour, the 
committee ask themselves in their Beport, Is the object of their 
institution now attained? May their mutual compact now be 
honourably dissolved? and are they at liberty to draw back from 
their post? They are constrained to answer. No.” ^‘Notwith¬ 
standing the efforts of all other societies directed to the same 
object, the claims of the world still multiply upon us; for there 
is scarcely a country, civilized or uncivilized, which does not wait 
to receive from us the law of our God; and even in our own 
metropolis, there is still an incredible number of families not 
almost, but altogether, destitute of even a fragment of the Scrip¬ 
tures of truth.” 

In the mean time, most cheering evidences of sympathy and 



SYMPATHY WITH THE SOCIETY. 


437 


interest evince the feeling of the country in general toward the 
well-known and loved society. It may be mentioned among other 
facts, that its legal advisers, in all cases of difficulty, tender 
gratuitously their professional services; and Messrs. Brown, Mar¬ 
ten, Thomas, and Hollams, continue to this day its honorary 
solicitors. 

The Principality has always yielded to the British and Foreign 
Bible Society its full quota of worthy successors of the late Mr. 
Charles; and the agent for Wales thus writes in 1837:—‘^It is 
a source of satisfaction to me, that I have been able to travel so 
many hundred miles with so little expense to the society. I have 
journeyed through a country where the Bible Society has many 
good and trusty fellow-labourers: consequently, I have never paid 
for a single night’s accommodation at an inn, during the five 
weeks I was from home. It is true I have been repeatedly 
accommodated at inns; but when I called for my bill, have been 
told that they had never any account for an agent of the Bible 
Society; and this hospitality has often included conveyance to 
the meetings which I have attended.’’ 

The same agent gives interesting tidings of Anglesea, the 
ancient Mona—the old home of the Druids. He calls to mind 
that Anglesea took the lead among the Welsh auxiliaries, that it 
had collected upward of lOOOZ. in one year for the Bible Society, 
and that its remittances average from 500^. to 600Z. per annum. 
He adds, that, taking in^ consideration the limited extent of the 
island, the small number of inhabitants, (48,000,) and the com¬ 
parative poverty of the peopje, this amount of contribution is 
astonishingj viz. threepence annually for every map, woman, 
and child in the island, apd can only be accounted for on the 
principle that ‘^uuion is strength.” If England, Wales, and 
Scotland contributed in the same proportion, the society would 
have a free income amounting to 175,000^. per annum. It is a 
gratifying fact, that in all the English cities and towns where 
there is a considerable Welsh population, Cambrian Bible So¬ 
cieties are formed, to supply themselves with the Scriptures, and 
to assist the Parent Society in its general operations. It is re- 



438 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


ported that one of these, the Liverpool Welsh branch, remits on 
an average the sum of 350/. per annum, as a free contribution to 
the funds of the society. 

Thus, as it was the destitution of Wales that originated the 
Bible Society, we cannot but rejoice to behold the unabated zeal 
of the Ancient Britons to bestow the Divine word on others. 
Would that their example were followed!—for while the Bible 
Society is praised as at the head of the benevolent institutions of 
the age, not merely in importance, but in the extent and success 
of its labours, iU free income o/* 54,000/. for all home and foreign 
purposes, is little more than one-half that of the leading mis¬ 
sionary institutions; and while they have doubled their income 
in the last fifteen years, the free contributions to the British 
and Foreign Bible Society have not increased in the same pro¬ 
portion. 


The still destitute condition of ^the poor Highlanders of Scot¬ 
land engaged the attention of the committee. In the poorer dis¬ 
tricts, in years of scarcity, the people having neither bread nor 
firing, and seldom if ever any money, a vote of 300 Bibles and 
700 Testaments was made to a member of parliament, who em¬ 
ployed colporteurs in such neighbourhoods. In the Shetland 
Isles, a missionary asked a young woman about nineteen years of 
age, who had been his guide for several miles, whether she would 
accept of a sixpence or a New Testament for her trouble. The 
question evidently seemed to throw her into considerable per¬ 
plexity; but she soon replied, ^‘I never had a sixpence of my 
own since I was born, and you may be sure I should like to have 
one now; but the New Testament is the Book of Grod, and there¬ 
fore I will choose it, if you please. 

The member of parliament above referred to, Mr. Lillingston 
of Lochalsh, continued for several years to receive grants of Bibles 
and Testaments for his destitute neighbours. Mr. Paterson visited 
him in his romantic seclusion on the borders of a land-locked bay, 
was introdneed to his colporteurs, and saw the yacht which made 




LARGE ISSUE OP THE SCRIPTURES. 


439 


missionary voyages with the word of life from islet to islet. The 
population were gradually taught to read; and in 1839, 3000 
Bibles and Testaments were supplied to them. Mr. L. sent a 
donation of lOOZ. from himself, and the amazing contribution to 
the society of 62Z. from the poor Highlanders, many of whom 
gave their little all for the time-being, to testify their gratitude. 

In the year 1840, the society supplied 38,500 New Testaments, 
by way of loan, among families still found destitute of the Sacred 
Scriptures in London, chiefly distributed through the agents of 
the City Mission; and many pleasing results are recorded. 

In the year 1841, an issue of the Scriptures was reported larger 
than any ever made before: this was owing to their cheapened 
price, and the increasing efforts of the Auxiliary Societies. The 
Liverpool Town Mission made a canvass of the neighbourhood 
of that large town; and 5000 families, out of a population of 
15,000, residing in 179 streets, were found destitute of the Scrip¬ 
tures. In about one-third of the town of Leeds, 1200 families 
were found without Bibles or Testaments, nearly all of whom were 
declared to be too poor to purchase them. These facts telling 
upon one another, the Report of 1841 announced an issue of more 
than “900,000 copies of the inspired records,’’ from the de¬ 
positories, at home and abroad. 

The Report for 1842 alludes to Luther’s wish—“Would that 
that book alone were in all languages, before the eyes, in the ears, 
and in the hearts of all!” and to the Bible Society as advancing 
toward the fulfilment of that wish. It also mentions the pro¬ 
found reverence and delight of Luther and his friend Melancthon, 
while occupied in the German translation. “They often paused 
in their labours to give free expression to their wonder, to listen 
to the Wery voice of the Creator of heaven and earth;’ ” and the 
writer adds, “ Oh! that we might see revived that spirit of eager 
delight with which the people who had heard the reformers preach, 
hailed those first attempts to put into their hands the translated 
Scriptures! ^ You have preached Christ to us,’ said they; ^now 
let us hear himself!’ and they caught at the sheets given to the 
world, as a letter coming to them from heaven. A kindred spirit 



440 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


to this awakening on the plains of Africa, and in the islands 
of the Southern Ocean. Bechuanas, Tahitians, New Zealanders, 
and Barotongans, are acting the part of the German peasants: 
they catch at the sheets given to the world, as a letter coming 
to them from heaven. This letter from heaven it is our single 
object to publish and circulate; we wish it to be read by men 
of all nations, and kindreds, and tongues; we wish that all the 
earth should hear its words of wondrous mercy. Shall we speak 
of discouragements, or fear them? Shall we dwell on the dis¬ 
tinctions that divide us, important though in some respects they 
be? No; rather let us hasten to bear each his part, in putting 
into the hands of the whole human family the common record 
of our Father’s love. Angels might envy us our honourable 
employ.’’ 

The years 1845 and 1846 were very remarkable for the in¬ 
creasing demand and distribution at home. Some friends visiting 
Blackpool, a small watering-place on the coast of Lancashire, had 
their attention awakened to the spiritual wants of the neighbour¬ 
hood, commenced a sale of the Sacred Scriptures, and afterward 
formed a Bible Association. In a few months, 1800 copies were 
circulated in that limited district. 

This movement was greatly encouraged by the zealous co-opera¬ 
tion of a gentleman from Manchester, who returned home with 
his mind much set on attempting a wider distribution of the Scrip¬ 
tures among the immense population by which he saw himself 
surrounded. After conference and prayer with a few pious 
friends, it was resolved to make the experiment of offering the 
Scriptures for sale among the work-people of the numerous mills 
and factories, and wherever an open door was found. Unexampled 
success attended the effort; willing purchasers presented them¬ 
selves in every direction; while at Manchester donations and in¬ 
creased subscriptions were promptly offered, more than sufficient 
to allay the apprehension of injury to the general funds of the 
society. 

From the Manchester depository, 96,711 copies of the Scrip¬ 
tures were issued in twelve months,—a number equal to the dis- 



BIBLE DISTRIBUTION IN ENGLAND. 


441 


tribution of the preceding twelve years! The auxiliaries at Liver¬ 
pool, Bristol, Bath, Hereford, Derby, Leicester, and other places, 
greatly increased their distributions. The total issues of 1846 
amounted to the unprecedented number of 1,441,651 copies, and 
those of 1847 were no fewer than 1,419,283! 


From this time the Song of the Jubilee may be said to have 
begun. Nearly three millions of copies issued in two years,— 
forwarded by the most rapid conveyances, such as our fathers 
never dreamed of, to every quarter of the globe,—a bright point 
in the world’s moral history, to which the Christian’s eye could 
turn, from all the vexatious dissensions of party, and especially 
from the designs carrying on, on the part of Rome, to effect the 
restoration of Britain to that see. The pope has put his foot 
into England, but all the nations look to England and her Bible.” 
And nowhere has there been a wider delivery of the volume of 
inspiration than within our own borders. Among the poor and 
the rich, in our rural districts, as well as in our towns and cities, 
in the palace, the school-room, and the cottage, the Bible is a 
book possessed —by many, very many a book beloved. It can 
everywhere in England be the Book appealed to. Let the war 
of principles rise to whatever height it may, the friends of the 
Bible need not yield to fear. 

In the retrospect of forty years, the Parent committee took a 
wide range, and made it a season of solemn remembrance.” In 
that forty years, more copies of the written voice of God had gone 
forth upon the earth than in any equal period since the world 
began—perhaps more than in all former periods added together. 
It must be presumed that He who ^^ordereth all things after the 
counsel of his own will,” has had some special, some extra¬ 
ordinary, design in the fresh movement which he has permitted 
to take place. 

When the Bible Society took its rise, controversy between 
Christians was very much at rest. Christianity had only to 
stmggle with infidelity as its common foe; but now questions and 




442 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


claims that had slept for ages are re-agitated, and symptoms 
spreading far and wide around us mark the gathering storm. 
Meantime the Book, which must be the only unfailing standard 
of appeal, is no longer hidden among the wise and the mighty. It 
is now in the hands of innumerable people,—an end accomplished 
by Bible Societies, possibly in preparation for this very hour. 
^‘To the law and to the testimony,^^ each for ourselves; and, as 
Wiclif said, ^^The truth shall prevail. 

The Song of Jubilee is almost overpowering, as ascending in 
many tongues from all regions of the world. It is impossible to 
convey, in the last chapter of this little work, any fair impression 
of the spirit that pervades these Reports’^ of the circulation of 
the Book of truth for the last ten years. One of them, if read 
and thought upon, would seem enough to kindle a kindred flame 
of zeal and love in the hearts of a thousand fresh labourers. Well 
may the agents rejoice in their work, think it the best work in 
the world, and never weary of it, till they wear out in it! Well 
may the hearts of the colporteurs burn within them, as their poor 
dwellings are crowded until midnight by persons asking for the 
Scriptures, from the lively boy to the decrepit old man*—or as 
they obtain access to ^^wild and savage households,^’ and gather 
out of them, by the word of Grod, the brands from the burning” 
—or when asked, “What sort of postmen are you, now, with 
that sac on your backs?” they reply, “We are higher postmen 
than any other kind of postmen on earth: we carry letters from 
heaven. When we go out, we cannot go without our God going 
with us. We want courage and wisdom from above, and especially 
an humble"meekness; for the fiery and angry zeal of Peter cuts 
off, but the Spirit of God in us builds up : then we confound the 
mockers, and shut the mouths of gainsayers, and the heart of the 
humble is refreshed.” Let us every day pray for these col¬ 
porteurs, all over the world, for they are doing the great work 
of the age, as well as those who are directing them. 

There are colporteurs at home as well as abroad. A colporteur 


Report, 1845, p. xlix. - 




COLPORTAGE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 


443 


has gone forth from Lutterworth, the scene of Wiclif’s own la¬ 
bours, and 474 years after the death of him who first gave the 
Bible to England, and has sold in the course of five years, within 
a circuit of ten miles, 4500 Bibles and Testaments. How would 
the reformer himself have rejoiced to see this day ! The man in 
question was a hawker by trade; and a lady who desired the dis¬ 
tribution of the holy word offered him \d. for every Bible, and 
Id. for every Testament, he might sell in his accustomed rounds. 
In the first year, beginning August 5, 1847, he sold 242 Bibles, 
364 Testaments; in that beginning 1848, 116 Bibles, 211 Testa¬ 
ments; in the third year, 121 Bibles, 200 Testaments. In his 
fourth year he came under the inspection of the Bible Association 
at Lutterworth. From that time, in addition to selling in his 
regular rounds, he gave one whole day every fortnight to the 
sale of the Scriptures alone, at the average pay of 2s. Qd. He 
went into every house, and sold to those he met along the road. 
In the year ending August 1852, he sold 384 Bibles, 626 Testa¬ 
ments; and in 1853, 471 Bibles, 851 Testaments. He walked 
on an average, on these especial days, eighteen miles; he carried 
perhaps 70 books: on one occasion he carried 104, and sold every 
copy! 

Now, can there not be found some suitable person to colport in 
this way in every town and village in Great Britain ? The com¬ 
mittee of the British and Foreign Bible Society have resolved 
to adopt, as far as possible, an extensive and efficient system of 
colportage throughout Great Britain in this year of Jubilee.^^ 
They will, during this yearj and from the special fund’^ which 
this year will be raised in addition to their ordinary income, be 
able to appropriate grants of help to such committees as shall 
request their aid, in order to the appointment and inspection of 
such colporteurs, to carry the word of God, and that alone, not 
into districts already canvassed and under the care of Bible col¬ 
lectors, but into those stray hamlets and isolated spots, as well as 
into all unvisited neighbourhoods, where the treasure has not 
before been offered. In this Jubilee Year, as far as the Bible 



444 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


Society can accomplish it, an attempt should be made to convey 
the written word of God to every cottage in England, Scotland, 
and Wales,—we trust, not excepting Ireland. 

Now, who will not wish to aid in this glorious work, by con¬ 
tribution or effort ? 

The Rev. P. B. Clifford, of St. Matthew’s, Bristol, has lately 
communicated a circumstance which has caused him peculiar 
pleasure, that several boys of his congregation have voluntarily 
come forward without his suggestion, and dedicated the money 
which they had saved for purchasing fireworks on the Fifth of 
November, to the blessed work of sending the word of God to 
China. And from one school alone he has had the gratification 
of receiving five guineas for this holy enterprise, which otherwise 
would have been expended in fireworks. Even children, whose 
parents are connected with Bible Associations, can be little col¬ 
porteurs with their bag or basket, and sell around their own 
homes many a Bible or Testament. They are better sold than 
given, as more likely to be valued. * There are Testaments for 
fourpence, and Bibles for tenpence; with every variety of supe¬ 
rior price. Their elders can seek or set to work a colporteur,—a 
man of piety, and of bodily strength to carry his load, and walk 
sufficient distances,—who should render regular reports of his 
sales to responsible persons connected with the society, who will 
provide his stock and inspect his accounts. 

Oh! that when the world-wide Jubilee-meetings shall have 
been held, and when this system of colportage has been fully 
established all over the country, the arrangement of which is now 
in progress, those meetings and those domiciliary visits may be 
the means of calling forth, from a thousand hidden sources, per¬ 
sons who do not even know at this moment how they could work 
together with God,” in the distribution of his word, but in whose 
hearts he has planted the wish to do so 1 Oh I that many may 
come forward as contributors, each in their degree, from a penny 
to a thousand pounds, offered ‘^as unto the Lord,” or as col¬ 
lectors, determined every week to devote a portion of their time 
to this noble object, and to make it henceforth the thought of 



BLESSEDNESS OF BIBLE DISTRIBUTION. 


445 


their lives how they shall assist and induce others to assist in 
spreading the word of God ! Out of this number also may come 
missionaries to carry the word within the now unfolding doors of 
China and of India. Many would find health and happiness even 
for themselves in pursuing such an object. 

There is a true tale told of a lady, who was always ill and lying 
on the sofa, till a Bible Association was established in her neigh¬ 
bourhood, of which she became an active and happy member, and 
had no more ill-health. And well might this effect be produced 
on the physical frame, for the soul had set before it a great ob¬ 
ject. She entered upon a new world of sympathy with all who 
love God’s word upon earth. She was refreshed by the glad gifts 
of the free penny to the cause of God. At many a cottage door 
she heard it said, Yes, I will give it, because my mother gave 
it for me when I was a child.” “ It is but a penny : but I am 
sure I am glad to give the Bible to others; I shall not miss it.” 
No ! they not only do not miss it, but the blessing of Him who 
seeth all things is found to rest on all they have. If the selfish 
occupants of many a larger mansion, who repulse the modest 
Bible collector with pleas of previous engagement,” having 
nothing for charity,” and sometimes the more rational one of 
knowing nothing at all about it,” could have paid with her 
these visits to these cottages, they would have changed their 
minds, and become helpers also in the work. 

An occasional paper, issued by the Bible colportage committee 
for the Manchester district, full of interesting facts, shows what 
may be expected when this system is judiciously conducted. The 
anecdotes cannot be quoted, but one sentence is important: The 
efforts made to distribute the Scriptures among Bomanists (of 
whom they seem to have found large numbers) are likely to 
issue in much good.” Six colporteurs have been employed : the 
total number of calls they have made is 215,916; the total num¬ 
ber of Bibles and Testaments sold, 59,247; the sum realized by 
the sales, 2000^. 11s. ^\d. The secretary of the Ladies’ Bible 
Association in one of the largest towns says : The sales effected 
by the ladies have not been at all interfered with by the labours 

38 



446 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


of the colporteur; for the 4000 Bibles and Testaments which he 
has sold have been among those to whom the ladies had no means 
of access, and whom they felt most anxious should be supplied. 
They believe that not more than one-third of the work that might 
be accomplished by a colporteur in this populous town has yet 
been done.^^ 


IRELAND. 

We must also notice our sister isle, in which at the present 
time there are about 500 auxiliaries, in direct connection with 
the Hibernian Bible Society at Dublin, all of which are more or 
less engaged in sending forth the precious word of life. During 
the last few years, the annual distribution of the Scriptures has 
exceeded 100,000 copies, making a total of 2,138,437. This 
however, is independent of the large grants made directly from 
the Parent Society to the various societies labouring for the bene¬ 
fit of Ireland, amounting last year alone to upward of 33,000 
copies, and making a total of 1,650,000 granted to that portion 
of the British empire. Colportage has been carried on in Ireland 
over more than thirty of its counties; and by this instrumentality 
about 150,000 copies have been distributed in seven years. 

We cannot but view the remarkable movement taking place 
among the Roman Catholic population in the west of Ireland as 
the result of this distribution. Notice of this change has for 
some time past appeared in the Reports of the Parent Society: in 
that of 1850 is the following :— 

It has been very gratifying to the committee to hear of the 
religious movement that is going on in different parts of Ireland, 
produced, they are assured, by the reading of the Scriptures, 
especially in the Irish language. A strong desire has even been 
expressed among the people for the Irish Scriptures with margi¬ 
nal references, and intelligence like the following continually 
reaches us: Roman Catholic farmers and peasants petition for in¬ 
struction in the Irish Bible, and assert their ^inalienable right to 
read it.^ The setting sun witnesses young men and maidens, old 
men and children, leaving their homes under cover of the shades 



RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT IN IRELAND. 


447 


of evening, to steal to the lonely cabin on the mountain side, to 
^ search the Scriptures’ by the light of the bog-wood splinter! 
Daring and ferocious riband-men, bent on deeds of blood, and 
mad against the Protestant faith, meet with the ^strange Book,’ 
and read it, and become clothed and in their right mind, and are 
found sitting at the feet of Jesus !” 

From the Mayo district we have similar reports: ^^The word 
of life in the vernacular language is obtaining entrance into the 
most retired parts of the mountain-districts, and the desire to 
learn to read the Scriptures is increasing everywhere. In 1851, 
22,390 copies were sold in Ireland by colporteurs.” 

Another cause of this change may be noticed. The Secretary 
of the Sunday-school Society for Ireland says: In the Report 
for 1853, we calculate that at least 1,200,000 scholars have 
passed through the Sunday-schools during these thirty years. In 
the course of that period there have been issued to the schools 
three quarters of a million of Bibles and Testaments, and one 
million and a quarter of portions of Scripture. These are car¬ 
ried home by the scholars, to their families.” Mere secular edu¬ 
cation would never have wrought these wonders in Ireland. This 
religious movement has extended during these three years to 
hundreds and thousands. The Earl of Boden has testified to it 
in his interesting letters; and the very report of it is causing 
Roman Catholics continually to read and search the Scriptures, 
in order to find out what it is that has produced so extraordinary 
an effect on their old friends. 

The beautiful Report for 1850 closes with these words: ^Ms it 
not refreshing in an age like the present, when the Bible is as¬ 
saulted and maligned, when its authority is impugned and its in¬ 
spiration denied,—is it not refreshing to behold this despised 
Book going forth into every land ‘ with signs and wonders follow¬ 
ing’ ?” Among the nearly 8000 verses of which the New Tes¬ 
tament is composed, perhaps every one has touched some heart 
and roused some conscience, and confirmed the faith of some now 
in glory. We bow to the overwhelming conviction, that the 



448 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth 
from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.’^ 


So much for the Jubilee-field in Great Britain itself. The so¬ 
ciety has reached the age of fifty years,—an age remarkable in 
the existence of persons, communities, and institutions ! God 
trains man for eternity, by making him notice various periods of 
time. Man numbers his own months and years; but God him¬ 
self instituted the two periods of Sabbaths and Jubilees. There 
have been sixty-seven Jubilees since the word of God began to 
be written. Almost 112 generations of men have passed from 
earth since then; but only the last and this present have seen 
that holy word “have free course and prevail.What may not 
the generation now living, and the next generation, yet see! 
Space fails us, though vast topics of interest are left untouched 
concerning the colonies, and exemplifying the Bible as the friend 
of the negro—happily no more the slave- of Britain I One of 
this rescued race, while reading a copy of the Scriptures given 
to him from the society, said, that those who gave him that 
Bible gave him his life: he prays to God for them. “I read,^^ 
said he, “a chapter, and then God talks to me: I shut my book, 
and then I talk with God.’^ 

Nor are the colonies alone passed over. The Bible in Burmah, 
and also in Greece, the classic and apostolic land, where many 
thousands are coming within the influence of the Divine word in 
being taught to read it, offer, with countless other inviting fields 
of research, a rich reward to the exploring eye. A letter from 
Athens, says, “ Missionary efforts may fail, human instruments 
may be withdrawn, but the word of God must have free course.^^ 
No seed cast upon the waters ever yielded so rich a harvest as 
that which issues from the garners of the Bible Society: there 
are many thousands here who are still famishing for the bread 
of life. 





REVIEW OF THE PAST. 


449 


The delegates from America informed us, with every expres¬ 
sion of Christian sympathy and regard, that there are 1400 auxi¬ 
liary societies in America scattered over the whole land, and 
nearly 2800 branch societies. When the American Bible So¬ 
ciety was first formed, the districts now included by these were a 
perfect wilderness, where the savage roamed unmolested. The 
rapid increase of their population, their field of labour widening 
from year to year, their new and beautiful Bible Society House 
in New York, and their income increasing by 8500^. a year, with 
their annual distribution of 779,000 volumes, all formed subjects 
of admiration to the listening father-land which first made the 
movement that America rejoiced to imitate. 


But now, the Story of the Book must close. The facts of the 
Narrative will, it is believed, make strong appeal to those who 
already know and love the Bible Society; but it may possibly also 
fall into the hands of some who have not hitherto been aware of 
its claims. 

There are hundreds of thousands of persons who are not aware 
of the existence of the system of tbe Bible Society spreading 
throughout England, as a great fact. They have never, therefore, 
understood how much this cause has tended to make their country 
what she is, and to keep her what she is—the land of the Sab¬ 
bath and of the Bible, sitting at peace amid the tumults of the 
nations, abiding under the blessing of her God, because his word 
is sent forth from her borders to all the earth. 

The ways and means by which this work is done are now before 
those who shall have read this book,—the facts and figures having 
been collected from authentic records. 

These pages contain no new speculations,—they are only a pre¬ 
sentation of the old and the true. It is hoped they will speak to 
the young with the power of novelty: they, at least, are not sup¬ 
posed to have fully considered the details of the past, and they 
are themselves the hope of the future. The Bible Society needs, 
at this moment, fresh aids for fresh purposes; it needs the full 




450 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


emphasis and support of the clergy of our National Church, and 
of the ministers of all other Christian churches; it needs young 
men and women of all classes, from the highest to the lowest, who 
shall be devoted seriously and entirely to its noble service. Its 
truest hope is in the better part of Young England. 

The present age is one of fearful indifference to the truth, as 
well as of open enmity to it; and it requires the enthusiasm of 
youth to strive against its lukewarmness, as well as against its 
error. 

To you, then, whose hearts are not yet petrified, the bloom of 
whose early ardour is not yet faded by intercourse with a pleasure- 
loving world; to you who are capable of being elevated in cha¬ 
racter by the pursuit of a sublime object, that object is here pre¬ 
sented; an object worth living for—and, if necessary, worth 
dying for. 

Kesolve that you will lay a stone in this pyramid! that you will 
be a fibre, striking root from this banian tree. If a Bible Asso¬ 
ciation is formed in your neighbourhood, or if one has been long 
formed there, and it is in a state needing revival, resolve that you 
will give it honest and hearty help; and do this in remembrance 
of what will be required at your hand in that day when God shall 
say, Hast thou kept my word ? hast thou made it known to any 
soul among thy perishing fellow-sinners, for my sake Miserable 
will be the answer if you must reply, To no man, Lord.^^ 

England has done so much for the distribution of the Bible, 
that in your day she must do vastly more ! She has raised herself 
by what she has already done into the seat of high responsibility. 
She cannot draw back : she must go forward. The time is come 
when the members of God’s Universal Church must rise above the 
spirit of party, and, ascending into the higher atmosphere which 
is breathed in the Bible Society, (for in Earl-street, it is said, they 
never know the denomination to which each member belongs,) 
learn to agree on two points, viz. to hold fast the faithful word,” 
and also to love one another,” and in this temper to gird on their 
armour, having in their hand the sword of the Spirit, which is 
the word of God.” 



MOTIVES FOR RENEWED EXERTION. 


451 


The church of tradition has made ready for the battle : the hosts 
of unbelievers are zealous for the dispersion of their errors. Satan 
has even contrived a new book of falsehood, called the book of 
Mormon/^ whereby he is deluding thousands in this nineteenth 
century of intelligence and inquiry. And how are these mixed 
hosts of evil to be met ? There is no new weapon to seek, but 
■simply to perceive the full power of the old principle of union^ to 
lay hold of it, and to use it, in the name of the Lord. 

When our own empire is more fully supplied with the word of 
God, and more deeply pervaded by its spirit, such a light may go 
forth from it as shall bear the witness to all the world. The Ena*- 
lish language is spoken over three-quarters of the globe. Hence 
our own opportunities and responsibilities as a nation I ^^The 
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a 
witness to all nations,^^ and this is done by the multiplication and 
prayerful distribution of copies of the Divine word, which it is 
promised shall be accompanied by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. 

Missionaries have prepared it in the tongues of many people, 
and they are also its chief distributors in foreign climes. They 
go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, and shall doubtless come 
again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them.^^ Psalm 
cxxvi. 6. But it is not promised that their word shall convert the 
nations : it is God’s word that is not to return unto him void.^^ 
The gospel is the instrument, and we need not wait till we have 
provided man’s note or comment upon it, however excellent: the 
seed is the word, and the field is the world.” 

- Let any one now aware of the influence of which this institu¬ 
tion is the great centre, endeavour to realize the sad idea of a 
closed Bible Society House—closed as by a Bussian ukase, or an 
Austrian edict—the shutters up, and the doors fastened ! If this 
were possible, what a source of light and life to the universe 
would be extinguished—the correspondence of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society concluded, its accounts wound up, and its 
officers dismissed ! May that day never dawn on our free country ! 
Abiding under the shadow of England’s throne, may the Bible 
Society still go on to pour fresh oil into the seven-branched candle- 



452 


THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. 


stick of tlie ancient churclies—into the Nestorian, the Armenian, 
the Coptic, the Abyssinian, the Vaudois, the British, and the Jew¬ 
ish—that in all parts of the world their light may again lighten 
the darkness around them—and that they may unite to speed the 
bright angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlast¬ 
ing gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to 
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a 
loud voice. Fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his 
judgment is come; and worship him that made heaven, and earth, 
and the sea, and the fountains 'of waters! And there followed 
another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, 
because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her 
fornication.^^ Rev. xiv. 6-8. 

Very much land is yet to be possessed,’^ vast is the magnitude 
of the work which remains to be done. At the utmost possible 
computation of Bibles already circulated, 700 millions of souls, 
or 140 millions of families, are yet left totally destitute! 

Even if England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, were adequately 
provided, the kingdoms and countries of Europe are not half 
supplied! 

Supposing the United States of America to possess Bibles to 
the same extent with ourselves, look at the native tribes, and the 
vast continent of South America! then at all Asia, and Africa, 
and Oceanica! and, impressed with a fresh sense of the wants of 
the world—of the power of the Book,—and of the truth of its 
Story,—let us arise and work while it is called to-day, for the 
night cometh when no man can work—work together with God, 
who has said, My word shall not return unto me void ; 

BUT IT SHALL ACCOMPLISH THAT WHICH I PLEASE, AND SHALL 
PROSPER IN THE THING WHERETO I SENT IT.’^ Isa. Iv. 11. 



INDEX 


A. 

Aaron, death of, 41. 

Abdallah, his conversion and martyr¬ 
dom, 324. 

Abyssinian Church, 112, 296, 421. 

Ada Bazar, 415. 

Advent of our Lord, 87. 

Africa, 241; South Africa, 391. 

Agents, foreign, of Bible Society, 436. 

Ages without the Bible, 18. 

Alaric, king of the Goths, 105. 

Aldersey, Miss, missionary to China, 
373. 

Aleppo, 284, 314, 414. 

Ali Bey, 311. 

Alphabets: Arabic, 149; Armenian, 
148; Coptic, 146; Erse or Irish, 
151; Ethiopic, 148; Georgian, 
150; Gothic, 146; Persian, 147; 
Sclavonian, 150. 

Amalek, 32, 69. 

America, 241, 278, 449. 

Amharic Testament, 297; Amharic 
Bible, 190. 

Anakim, the tall, 39, 47. 

Anecdotes : African woman, 352; Aged 
Hindoo, 358; Bible-bees, 256; I 


Bible seized by Romish priests, 
401; blind French girl, 195; 
Bishop Corrie, 354; Rev. Andrew 
Brandram, 435; Brahminical con¬ 
tempt, 356; child and infidel, 
254; filial afiection, 334; gun 
bought with Bible money, 257 ; 
Highland girl, 438; Hindoo rajah, 
356; Irish weaver, 261; Jewish 
conversion, 425; Romish priest, 
301; subscriber blessed, 255; Ta¬ 
hitians and Romish priest, 387; 
Welsh girl who had no Bible, 221; 
Welsh peasants, 222. 

Anglesea or Mona, 81, 93; astonishing 
contributions of, 437. 

Antiochus Epiphanes, 74. 

Apocryphal books, 73, 204; not bound 
up with the Society’s Bibles, 319; 
their omission objected to by Ro¬ 
manists, 319. 

Apollo, oracle of, concerning Christian¬ 
ity, 93. 

Apostles, their martyrdom, 92. 

Appeal, closing, 450. 

Arabia, 27; land where St. Paul com¬ 
menced his ministry, 320. 

Arabic, whore spoken, 320; the lan- 
453 




454 


INDEX. 


guage of the Koran, 320; New 
Testament, 321; printed at Cal¬ 
cutta, 321; new version prepared 
320. 

Arabs, 27, 319, 323. 

Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon, 
163. 

Argyll’s, Duke of, speech, 303. 

Aristobulus of Judea, 77, 82. 

Armenian Bible, 295. 

Armenian Church, 110, 294, 411. 

Armenians, American missions to, 295, 
412; Bible venerated by, 412; 
gospel-readers, 413. 

Arrow-headed writing, 66. 

Askew, Ann, 166. 

Asselin, Mons., French consul in 
Egypt, 190, 298. 

Asser, tutor to King Alfred, 121. 

Assyria, fountain restored in, 405. 

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 119. 

Augustine, Bishop of Home, his mis¬ 
sion to England, 119. 

Australia, 383. 

Austria, 306, 393. 

Authorised English version, 181. 

Autograph Deuteronomy, 43. 

Auxiliary at Beading, 248. 

B. 

Babylon, 71. 

Bagster’s Bible of Every land, 172. 

Bangor-Iscoed, 119. 

Banian tree, 246. 

Barker, Mr. B., 313. 

Beckwith, Major-General, 423. 

Bede, the Venerable, 120, 258. 

Belgium, 306, 400. 

Bexley, Lord, 434. 

Bible: perils of a Bible agent, 315; 
Bible House, 138, 179; need of, 


in Ireland, 231; price of, in Wic- 
lif’s time, 139; distribution among 
Roman Catholics, 300; in Russia, 
308; Italian, 197; Breton, 188; 
Malagassy, 197; Chinese, 198; 
Swedish, Portuguese, French, 
Russian, Amharic, Tahitian, Ma" 
lay, English Family Bibles, Dia¬ 
mond, Pearl, and Ruby Bibles, 
199; unbound, 199; the Bishops 
Bible, 181; Bible translations in 
the 16th century, 145; Bible, 
standard of appeal, 442; Bible 
binding, 212; folding, 209; rol¬ 
ling, collating, sewing, recollating, 
pressing, cutting, gilding, burn¬ 
ishing, sprinkling, marbling, 
rounding, 211; Bibles never issued 
by the Society unbound, 213. 

Bible Society: authorised in Russia, 
308; death of friends of, 332; its 
origin, 217; its objects and consti¬ 
tution, 229; its principles of Union, 
226; present free income of, 376; 
its need of support, 450. 

Bilney the martyr, 153. 

Blackfriars’, Church and Monastery 
of, 137. 

Black-pool, 440. 

Blind, Bible for the, 194. 

Book, the, and its circulation, becomes 
the guide, 98. 

Books of New Testament, 89. 

Borrow, JMr. G., 376. 

Boughton, Lady Jane, 137. 

Boulogne, matelots de, 346. 

Bradby, John, 136. 

Brandram, Rev. Andrew, 435. 

Bran, the father of Caractacus, at 
Rome with St. Paul, 93, 114. 

Britanny, 114, 115, 188. 

British Church, 114, 117, 119. 

British Museum, 20, 65. 




INDEX. 


455 


Britons, Ancient, 77. 

Browne, Rev. G., 335. 

Buchanan, Dr., 30, 192, 240, 292, 293. 
Buenos Ayres, 317. 

Bullom, King of, 321. 

Burckhardt, 284, 285. 

Buriat Mongol missions, 311, 376. 
Burning the Bible at Paul’s-cross, 162, 
163. 


c. 

Caesar, 77. 

Calmuc gospel, 309. 

Cambridge, search for Bibles at, 160. 

Campbell, Rev. J., in South Africa, 325. 

Canaanites, 47. - 

Canon, 46, 72; of Scripture, 72. 

Captivity and return of Judah, 60 

Cardinal Wolsey, 138, 162, 165. 

Carey, Dr., his death, 186. 

Celtic nations, 78. 

Charles, Rev. T., of Bala, 217-224, 231, 
232. 

China, 364; tablet of Se-gnan-foo, 364; 
Nestorian Missions in, 365; Chi¬ 
nese manuscript, 239, 365; Dr. 
Morrison’s mission to, 365; his 
Chinese dictionary, 366; Tsae-ako, 
his first convert, 366; Dr. Milne, 
367; Leang-a-fah, first Chinese 
Evangelist, his tract, 368; distri¬ 
bution of, and persecution, 367; 
the rebellion, 368”; Sew-tseuen, its 
leader, his writings and opinions, 
369; his history, 370; vast idol 
temple in China, 370; lucky days 
expunged from the almanac, 370 ; 
vast population of, 374; Protestant 
missionaries in, 374; scarcity of 
food in, 374; Bible in China, 374. 

Chinese Bible, 186, 366. 


Chinese hatred of images, 370; ac¬ 
knowledge all men as brethren, 
371; possess the first twenty-seven 
chapters of Genesis, 371; need the 
New Testament, 371; the million 
copies, 371; their Great Wall, 
371;^ their simple mode of print¬ 
ing, 372; generals of the insur¬ 
gent army, 372; the Scriptures, 
Society’s grants for, 378; portions 
of, distributed, and where, 378. 

Christianity, early, in Scotland, 94. 

Christians, Bohemian, 129. 

Church of the Book, 38, 85, 98, 101, 
106, 119, 300, 341. 

Churches founded in consequence of 
circulation of word of God, 145, 
398. 

Circle of doomed countries: Nineveh, 
63; Jerusalem, 67; Tyre, 68; Pe¬ 
tra, 69; Babylon, 71; Egypt, 70. 

Claude of Turin, 122. 

Clugni, 140. 

Cobham, Lord, 137; 

Cochloeus, 156. 

Cockle, Mr., 378. 

CoflBn, the oldest, 20. 

Collectors, Bible, 474. 

Colonies, British, 478. 

Committee-rooms in Bible House, 192; 
case of Bibles in the, 193; Mr. 
Wyld’s map, 194; portrait of Tyn- 
dal, 194; other portraits, 195. 

Colportage on the continent, 335; at 
Manchester, 445. 

Colporteur, his work, 339; at Radnor, 
339; at Lutterworth, 471. 

Colporteurs: Vaudois, 124, 144, 233; 
in France, 336, 338; in the High¬ 
lands and islands of Scotland, 438; 
in Sweden, 432; in Holland, 429; 
in Belgium, 402; in India, 360. 

Columba, 116, 117, 118. 





456 


INDEX. 


Constantine, the Armenian, 111. 
Constantine, the Emperor, 103. 
Constantinople, missionaries at, 393; 

Jubilee meeting at, 417. 
Continent, state of, 432, 433. 

Coptic Church,322,419 ; Bible, 323,419. 
Council, the earthquake, 131; of Nice, 
103; of Toulouse, 133. 

Courtenay, Archbishop, 131. 
Coverdale’s Bible, 180. 

Crystal Palace, 193. 

Cyril, the child-martyr, 99 
Cyrus, 60. 


D. 

Dajacks of Borneo, 384. 

Dalaber, Anthony, 158. 

Daniel, 60 j the “four beasts,” 74; the 
“ two pictures,” 73. 

'Dark ages, 123. 

David, 51; David’s Bible, 51. 

Deluge, 19; Job’s allusions to, 29. 
Denmark, 277, 431. 

Derbecq, the king of colporteurs, 337. 
Diez, Baron von, 311. 

DiflSculty of translation, 326. 
Dioclesian persecution, 100; medals 
100 . 

Doom-rings, 81. 

Douay Bible, 187. 

Dress of Virgin Mary at Rome, 376. 
Druidical remains, 80. 

Druids, Hebrew origin of the, 78. 
Dutch Bibles, scarcity of, 264; colo¬ 
nists in India, 293. 


E 

Ebai, 48. 

Early bishops, 96, 


Edward VI., 181. 

Egypt, 70. 

Egypt, ancient, rise of its idolatries, 
19, 20. 

England, 247, 434. 

English Bible, 152. 

Erasmus, 153. 

Essenes, 84. 

Esther, 72. 

Ethelbert’s temple to Diana, 160. 
Ethioptic New Testament, 298; manu¬ 
script Bible, 179. 

Ewald, Rev. Mr., 424. 

Exode of Israel from Egypt, 32. 
Ezekiel, 59. 

Ezra’s ministry, 60; law redelivered 
by, 61. 


Fable, by Mr. Deal try, 251. 

Fee-jee Isles, 390. 

Felix Neflf, 422. 

Fireworks, money intended for, given 
to send Testaments to China, 444. 
First century, 89. 

Foster’s, Rev. John, letter to Mr. 
Hughes, 334. 

France, gift of Vaudois Church to, 143; 
want of Scriptures in, 233-238; 
Jews in, 281; no French Bible in 
Paris, 305 ; present Bible circular, 
tion in, 397, 398. 

Friars, black, white, and grey, 132. 
Frontispiece, description of, 165. 
Fryth, John, the martyr, 153, 159. 

Gr. 

Galitzin, Prince, speech of, 308. 
Garrett, Thomas, 158. 




INDEX. 


457 


Gaussen’s, Professor, opinions, 174, 
192. 

Geneva Bible, 181. 

Gerizim, 48. 

Germany, religious state of, 265 j suc¬ 
cess of Bible Society in, 266; 
present state of, 430. 

Ghizeh, pyramid of, 20. 

Gilly, Dr., 109, 422. 

Gobat, Bishop, 190, 298. 

Golden shoes and scarlet gloves, 162. 

Gospel of Luke, in Gipsey language, 
396. 

Gospels in Buriat Mongol, 309. 

Gospels, when written, 95. 

Graydon, Lieutenant, 396. 

Great Britain, her dominions, 243. 

Greece, 316, 448. 

Greek Church, 110; philosophers, 82; 
Testament of Erasmus, 139. 

Gurney, Mr., on the moral state of the 
continent, 404. 

Gutzlaff’s, Dr., colporteurs in China, 
378. 


H. 

Heathen countries, 324, 352. 

Hebrew, ancient, specimen of, 29; 
manuscripts, 30; New Testament, 
288. 

Hebron or Arba, 48. 

Henderson, Mr., 274, 276. 

Henry VIIL, 164, 165, 167, 170, 180. 
Heresies, earliest, 95, 98. 

Heresy, meaning of the word, 98. 
Herod, 82. 

Hieroglyphics, 22; balance-scene in,25. 
Highlanders’ subscription, 439. 
Highland girl, her choice, 438. 
History-lessons, a child’s notion of, 
304. 


Holland, 264, 428. 

Horeb, Mount, 31. 

Hosea, the prophet, 62. 
Hughes, Kev. Joseph, 227, 332. 
Huguenots, 130, 398. 


I. 

Iceland, education in, 273; Mr. Hen¬ 
derson’s visit to, 276; scarcity of 
Bibles in, 277. 

Ignatius, 96. 

Ignorance, general, 121, 123. " 

Income of Bible Society, 438. 

Indulgences, 136. 

Infidel publications, 351. 

Innocent III., 127. 

Inquisition, 127. 

Inscriptions: Egyptian, 21; Sinaitic, 
34. 

Inspired persons, 95. 

Iona, 79, 115, 116, 118, 120, 141. 

Ireland: destitution of Scriptures in, 
and supply, 274, 446 ; schools in, 
447. 

Irish New Testament, 151; the pea¬ 
santry desire the Scriptures, 261. 

Ishmael, 69. 

Israel and Judah, 52. 

Israelites, bondage of, 26; captivity of 
Judah, 59; entrance into Canaan,^ 
46; murmurings of, 41; seven sins 
of, 38; six servitudes of, 50; ten 
tribes of, 57; wanderings of, 32. 

India, 352; its population, 353; the 
Bible there, 354; Bishop Corie in, 
354; Bibles translated for, 354; 
Calcutta Bible Association, 355; 
missionary tours, 357; American 
mission, 358; Baptist mission, 
186, 361; Church of England mis¬ 
sion, 360; London mission, 358 


39 





458 


INDEX. 


German mission, 357; Dr. Bu¬ 
chanan, 359,* anecdote of Pran- 
kissen Singh, 358; Madras Bible 
Association, 359; new desire of 
natives for Scriptures, 361; grant 
for colportage, 361; learned na¬ 
tive convert, 362; “village of 
learners” from Bengali New Tes¬ 
tament, 363 ; devil-worship, 364; 
copies circulated since 1804, 364 

J. 

Jannaeus, 76. < 

Japan, no Bible for, 379; Jesuits in, 
379; enmity to Christianity, 379. 

Japanese vessel, wreck of, 380. 

Javanese translation, 428. 

Jebel Mousa, 37. 

Jehoiakim, burial of, 59. 

Jersey, destitution of Bibles in, 340; 
letter from, 340; grants of Bibles 
to, 340; Bible-collector in, 341 ; 
duty of Jersey toward France, 
343. 

Jerusalem, destruction of, 94. 

Jesuit, accusation by, 403. 

Jewish converts persecuted by Jews, 
289; rabbi at Aleppo, 284. 

Job, the book of, 28. 

Jews: their persecutions, 280; their 
numbers, 283; white and black, 
294; ignorant of their own pro¬ 
phets, 425. 

Jobaritae, an Arab tribe, 28. 

John the Baptist, 88. 

Joshua, 46-49. 

Josiah, 44. 

Jubilee review, 337. 

Jubilees and Sabbaths, 448. 

Jubilee Year, 337. 

Judah’s Idolatry, 68, 71. 


Judas Maccabeus, 75. 

Judea added to Homan empire, 76. 
Judges, book of, 49. 

Juvenile associations, 343; proceeds 
of, 344; results hoped for, 345. 


K. 

Karaite Jews, 286. 

Karnak, temple of, 21, 52, 71. 

Kiefifer, Professor, 305. 

King Alfred, 121. 

Kings of Israel, 51; all wicked, 63. 

Knill, Rev. R., 377. 

Koran, no society for distribution of, 
319, 418; specimen of, 102. 

Kurds, Scriptures among, 416. 

L. 

Ladies’ associations, 339. 

Last Supper, 91. 

Law in the desert, 42; under the 
judges, 50; to be copied by Le- 
vites, 42; giving of the, 36; to 
be written by the Kings of Israel, 
51. 

Layard, Dr., his discoveries, 65, 313; 
bis opinions, 417. 

Leander Von Ess, 303. 

Leicester Abbey, 165. 

Letter, encyclical, of Pope Leo XII., 
402. 

Levite, 42. 

Lights upon the letter, 192. 

Lillingston’s colporteurs, 439. 

Liverpool town-mission, 439. 

London, ancient, 93. 

Loochoo Islands, 381; naval mission 
at, 381; difficulties, 381; transla¬ 
tion of Scriptures, 382. 





INDEX. 


459 


Lord's Prayer in all languages, 187. 

Luther, 169; his own German Bible 
in the British Museum, 183, 184 ; 
his wish, 439 j his work of trans- 

. lation, 439. - 

Lutterworth Church, 132; colporteur, 
443. 

Luzerna, vows of, 129. 

, Lyons, early martyrs at, 97. 

M. 

Maccabees, 75. 

Madagascar, 198. 

Mohammedan countries, 319. 

Mohammedanism, rise of, 102. 

Mohammedans less prejudiced than 
formerly, 392. 

Mohamet Kamah, 185. 

Malaysia, Borneo, 384. 

Malta Bible Society, 322. 

Manchester in 1846, 441. 

Mangaia, South Seas, “ the new book 
of Job,” 389; popery rejected in, 
390. . 

Mankind, dispersion of, 19. 

Mantchoo typo forwarded to China, 
379. 

Manuscript library in Bible House, 
188. 

Manuscript Nestorian Bible, 189; 
writers, 141; Breton Bible, 188; 
Alexandrine, 108; of the Bible, 
cost in the eleventh century, 126; 
Chinese, in British Museum, 239; 
Ethiopic Scriptures, 190. 

Marinus the martyr, 99. 

Martyn, B,ev. Henry, his Arabic New 
Testament, 320. 

Martyrs, 198; Lollards, 137. 

• Mendicant friars, 131. 

Methuselah, 19. 


Millard, Mr. E., 430. 

Miracles, age of, 32. 

Missionary letters on translation, 326. 

Moffat, Rev. R., 330; his New Testa¬ 
ment in Sechuana, 331; his feel¬ 
ings, 392. 

Mohawk translation, 278. 

Monasteries, rise of, 105; use of, 140. 

Monastery of black-friars, 137. 

Monmouth, Humphrey, 155. 

More, Sir Thomas, 156. 

Morrison, Dr., 240, 366, 367. 

Moses, his training, 26; his death, 44. 

Motives for renewed exertion, 452. 

Mount Hor, 41. 

Mycerinus, King, 20. 

N. 

Nantes, edict of, its revocation, 234. 

Nazareth, reading of the Scriptures at, 
427. 

Nebo, 44. 

Nebuchadnezzar, 62; his dream, 73. 

Negro, remark of, 448. 

Nero’s troublesome coat, 92. 

Nestorius, 109. 

Nestorians, 291; papists among, 408; 
Dr. Layard’s sketch of, 409; Be- 
der Khan'Bey’s massacre of, 410; 
diggers at Nineveh, 410; Chinese 
relics among, 411; Rev. D. 
Stoddart’s account of, 406. 

Nestorian Church, 110, 296, 405; first 
missionaries, 109; its tenets, its 
liberality, 407; its manuscripts, 
408; influence of holy Scripture 
upon Nestorians, 408. 

New Testament, gradual circulation of, 
97 ; copy of, found in the posses¬ 
sion of a Patagonian chieftain, 317. 

New Zealand, 390. 




460 


INDEX. 


Nicomedia, 414, 415 j church at, 100, 
413. 

Nisroch, 6T. 

Norway, 272, 432. 

Number of Bibles at different periods, 
174. 

Nuremberg, Bible Society at, 238. 


0 . 

Obelisk at Nineveh, 66. 

Oberlin, 236; desire after the Bible in 
France, 301. 

Oberlin, Henry, 238. 

Oddur, his translation of the Scriptures, 
into Icelandic, 274; prayer of, 
274. 

Old books of stone, 21, 62, 64. 

Old St. Paul’s cathedral, 160. 

Old Testament, its writers, 30. 

OUas, Indian, 293. 

Owen, Bev. John, 225, 227; his visit 
to Oberlin’s parish, 237; death of, 
259. 

Oxford, search for Bibles at, 159. 


P. 

Pagan persecutions, 92. 

Pali version, 185. 

Papacy, progress of, 104. 

Papyrus rolls, 29. 

Paris, an effort to spread the gospel 
there, 305. 

Patagonian chieftain, 317. 
Paternoster-row, apple orchards in, 160. 
Paterson, Bev. J., 274. 

Patrick, St., or Succat, 115 
Paulicians, 111. 

Paul’s Cathedral, Old St., 160; cross, 
162; crypt of, 166. 


Pearce, Mr. Nathaniel, 297. 

Pelagius, 114. 

Penance, 136. 

Pentateuch, 30. 

Persecution, a blessing to Christians, 
97, 160; Domitian, 94; of Jewish 
converts, by Jews, 288. 

Persian Testament, 184; Scriptures, 
189. 

Petra, 69. 

Pharaoh, meaning of the name, 20. 

Pharisees, traditions of the, 85. 

Pinkerton, Dr., 287, 312. 

Pinking the world,” 345. 

Polyglots, 182. 

Pompey, 76. 

Pratt, Bev. Josiah, 226. 

Prayer of nuns, 144. 

Printing, 139 ; anger of the monks at, 
140; press, 142; early ages of, 
199; division of labour'in, 200; 
machine, 204; presses at Oxford, 
199; at Shacklewell, 199; hydrau¬ 
lic press, 206; paper, 30; process 
in making, 207. 

Prisoners in salt-fish cellar, 159. 

Prophets, rolls of, 55 ; table of, 54, 56. 

Protestant churches, 414; countries, 
428; doctrine, 116. 

Protestantism, fall of England’s, 119. 

Protestants, early, 109. 

Protests, early, 122. 

Psalm, the Bible, 61. 

Psalms, Ethiopic versions of the book 
of, 297. 

Prussia, 267. 

Pyramids, size of, 20. 


K. 

Babbins, 86. 

Barotongan Scriptures, 388. 





INDEX. 


461 


RedclifiFe, Lord Stratford de, speech of, 
417. 

Rekshere, tomlj of, 26. 

Relics, first reckoned precious, 103. 

Reneirius, the inquisitor, 127. 

Rephaim, 47. 

Rephidim, 32. 

Reports, Society’s, not dull books, 352. 

Responsibilities of the friends of the 
Bible, 350. 

Revelation, meaning of, 17,* at first 
given to the Jewish nation only, 
90; committed afresh to the apos¬ 
tles for all nations, 90. 

Review of the past, 450. 

Roman Catholic priest opposed, 301; 
the priests and the Apocrypha, in 
South America,, 319. 

Roll, the lost, 57; the bm-nt, 58. 

Roman dominion, 77. 

Rome Pagan changed to Rome Papal, 
106. 

Romaunt translation, 123. 

Rosetta Stone, 25. 


s. 

Sabat and Abdallah, 324. 

Sadducees infidels, 84. 

Saint Paul’s cross, 162, 164. 
Samaritan Jews, 57; Pentateuch, 57. 

' Samuel, the prophet, 50, 51. 

Satan’s two vast schemes against the 
Book, 101. 

Saviour, our, public ministry of, 95. 
Sawtree, William, 136. 

Scheiddegger, Catherine, 237. 
Sehepler, Maria, 237. 

Scotland, 115, 116, 232. 

'Scriptorium, 13^. 

Scriptures, five aneieot versions of. 


107; scattered by persecution, 
94. 

Sennacherib, 66. 

Septuagint translation, 73. 

Serpents, fiery, 43. 

Serpent-worship, 79. 

Seven sins of Israel, 38. 

Shacklewell, printing establishment at, 
199. 

Shagdur’s bushel of seed-corn, 377. 

Shishak, 53. 

Simon the Just, 74. 

Sinai, 35; eleven months at, 38. 

Societies for the distribution of the 
Scriptures existing before the es¬ 
tablishment of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, 228. 

Solomon, 52. 

Song of the Jubilee begun, 441. 

Souls, transmigration of, 20 

South America, 317. 

Spain possessed the gospel in the first 
century, 93. 

Spain and Portugal, 394; distribution 
of the Scriptures in, 395. 

Steinkopflf, Dr., 223; his visit to Ger¬ 
many, in 1851, 431. 

Stereotype plates, 203. 

Stones of memorial, 80. 

Subscriber to the Bible blessed, 255. 

Superstition in South America, 319. 

Swabia, communication from a Roman 
Catholic clergyman in, 302. 

Sweden, 270; religious state of, 271; 
results of distribution in, 272. 

Swedish Bible, 182. 

Switzerland, 269; and North Italy, 
396. 

Sympathy with Bible Society, 437. 

Synagogues, 83; rulers of, 83. 

Syrian Christians, 291; at Aleppo, 294; 
Old Testament, 293; Pentateuch, 
189; vine, 39. 




462 


INDEX. 


T. 

Tacitus, 93. 

Tahiti, Rev. J. Williams in, 328, 385; 
Bible prized in, 386. 

Tahitians and Romish priest, conversa¬ 
tion between, 387. 

Talmud, 86. 

Tamil, first Indian translation, 240; 
territory, 240 ; Scriptures, scarcity 
of, 240. 

Targums, 84. 

Tartary, Scriptures among Jews in, 
426 ; movement among Jews in, 
426. 

Teachers, false, 96; uninspired, 96. 

Teignmouth, Lord, 332; sentiment of, 
188. 

Temple at Jerusalem rebuilt under 
Ezra, 60; taken by Pompey, 76; 
cleansing of, 75; rebuilt by Herod, 
82. 

TertuUian, saying of, 97. 

Thebes, or Tbeba, meaning of, 21; its 
Scripture name, 21; Mr. Jowett 
at, 323. 

Thompson, Dr., extract from letter by, 
318. 

Toulouse, law made at, 133. 

Tract a pioneer to the Bible, 348. 

Tract Society, depository of, 162. 

Tradition, patriarchal, 19. 

Translations of the Bible, list of fifty, 
made previous to 1804, 170, 171. 

Translations, how obtained, 191; for 
India, by Dr. Carey, 186; prepar¬ 
ing for Europe, 142. 

Triads of the Druids, 81. 

Tribes, the lost ten, 57. 

Ton stall. Bishop, 156. 

Turkey, European and Asiatic, 310, 
316. 


Turkish Bible, finished, 314; manu¬ 
script, by Ali Bey, 311. 

Tuscany, 397. 

Tyneal, William, 152, 154, 156, 164; 
death of, and of Wolsey, compared, 
165. 

Tyre, 68. 

Type, distribution of, 202; cost of, for 
Diamond Bible, 203. 


u. 

Union among free-thinkers, 351; for 
God’s word’s sake, 174; first two 
principles of, in early church, 97; 
coming back to these, 226, 451. 
United Brethren, 129. 

United States of America, 278. 


V. 

Vaudois Church, 124, 298, 422. 

Vaudois people, 125; knowledge of 
Scripture, 126; persecutions of, 
127, 128 ; sufTerings, 235; recep¬ 
tion at Geneva, 235. 

Versions of Scripture: ancient, 107; 
Alexandrine, 108; before 1804, 
170, 171; Coverdale’s, 180; De 
Sacy’s, 143; Douay, 187; Dutch, 
172; extant in first century, 145; 
in sixteenth, 145; New England 
Indian, 173; Malay, 173; Olive- 
tan’s, 143; Persian, 184; Tamil, 
173; Tyndal’s, 180; Welsh, 182; 
Wiclifs, 180; Bohemian, 184; 
Pali, 185. 

Vigilantius, 108. ^ 

Voices from heaven, 19. 





INDEX. 


463 


W. 

Wady Mokatteb, 33. 

Waldenses Bible Society, 298. 

Waldo, Peter, 124. 

Wales, collections in, 226 j scarcity of 
Scriptures in, 220 ; circulating 
schools in, 220 ; large portions of 
Bible committed to memory by 
Welsh children, 221. 

Walsh, Sir John, 154. 

Wandering of Israelites, 41; thirty- 
eight years of unknown, 40. 

Warehouse, Bible Society’s, 196. 

War in Europe, time of, 238; prison¬ 
ers of war, 239. 


Welsh Bible, 182. 

Welsh language compared with the 
Breton, 189. 

Wiclif, 131; his monument, 134; pul¬ 
pit, 135; version of Scriptures, 
180; revenge on, 134; his Testa¬ 
ment, 180. 

Williams, Rev. John, his letter on 
translation, 328. 

Winged bull, 65. 

Wolsey’s search for New Testaments, 
158. 

Wong-shao-yet colporteur in China, 
378. 

Written voices of God, 198. 


BTEREOTTPED BT h. JOHNSON AND CO. 
PHILADELPHIA. 





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